Naruto the Male Valkyrie
by brown phantom
Summary: NEW POLL! Naruto inherited a strange otherworldly power from Kushina and it's not just the Kyuubi. Once it's revealed, his world will never be the same again. NaruSakuharem. Rating may change later.
1. Chapter 1

_This is a work requested by and designed with my good friend Wolfpackersson09, who also helped encourage me to write Ai Youkai. Some elements from this story are similar to that one, but the two are different stories. Also, this is a harem with Sakura, Hinata, Ino, Tenten, and maybe femHaku, Temari, and a girl from another series. Additions will not be done, and major changes will be done to the Narutoverse as a whole._

**Chapter One**

'I'll show that boy that heroes really do exist, that hope is a good thing, not a tormentor.' Naruto thought as he was all but training himself to exhaustion trying to... well, prove a point you could say.

He was in Nami no Kuni and Inari had gone off on his 'Nothing matters especially you' tirade to the Konoha nin. Needless to say the whiskered blonde was not in a good mood. Sure, after hearing Tazuna he could understand why the kid was cynical, but he hated seeing people act like everyone was in Heaven while they alone were in Hell.

'Kid acts like he thinks he's the only one who ever went to bed crying. Brat, come cry to me after you'll lived MY life, then we'll see who deserves to throw a tantrum.' He angrily told himself.

So now he was practicing what little taijutsu he knew and some treewalking for better chakra control, even if only slightly. But because of this anger at Inari and Gato and his own past in general, he was pretty much just venting out his frustrations than doing any actual productive training.

"Naruto!" Sakura called out to him, making him freeze immediately.

"Yes?" He asked seeing her walk up to him, for once not looking like she wanted to clobber him.

"How much longer do you plan to be out here?" She asked.

Naruto looked away at nothing. "Until I feel like I'm not going to yell at the kid anymore."

Sakura was surprised. "Yell?" In the entire time she had known the blonde, he had been loud like he didn't understand the concept of volume, but he never really _yelled_ at anyone.

He nodded with closed eyes. "Yeah, he kinda struck a nerve with me, talking like that, like everyone _but_ him is happy with their lives."

"Well he may be wrong, but it's not like he's unjustified in being unhappy. He did lose his father after all. Me, Sasuke-kun, and Kakashi-sensei all know what that feels like." Sakura defended, referencing her late father, the Uchiha Massacre, and what she had heard of Hatake Sakumo from a trusted source.

Naruto opened his eyes and they didn't look friendly. They were still blue, but angry. "And I don't? I lost my father too Sakura-chan."

"No you didn't. You never knew yours." Sakura plainly blurted out.

Now Naruto was madder. "Oh, and I suppose that's supposed to make me feel _better_?" He was being loud again, but now Sakura felt like for once he truly was yelling, not just trying to be heard. "I'm supposed to be _happy_ that I never knew my father? Or my mother? Or _any_ of my family? It's better that I've been completely alone since the day I was born? That I've got absolutely _nothing_ to be miserable about, while you all do?"

Sakura was stunned silent, surprised that Naruto for once wasn't his usual happy-go-lucky idiot self, and for once showed signs of having something to be resentful towards. "I... I thought you liked living on your own."

"What on earth gave you that idea?" He asked.

"Because you have no parents to tell you what to do. You hate having to follow the rules so without parents you get to do whatever you want all the time." Sakura explained, not trying to upset him, just explaining what she always thought was the truth.

Naruto turned around, not wanting her to see him cry. "Sakura-chan, I'd gladly have parents who gave me a thousand rules... if it meant I had someone to call mom and dad. Believe it Sakura-chan, all the freedom in the world means nothing if you're lonelier than hell."

This sure surprised the pinkette. All this time, she thought he was just some spoiled out of control orphan and he liked it that way. To hear he didn't was unexpected. "Well I'm sure there's something about it you like."

Naruto just rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah, I just _love_ the fact that I don't even know if my parents wanted me to be born. I'm absolutely _giddy_ that no one was there to make me feel better when I was hurt and frightened. It's _great_ that whenever I go home the only company I have is cockroaches. Thank you Sakura-chan for pointing out all the blessing that are raining down upon me. Wait a minute, that's not rain."

Sakura frowned at his overly sarcastic tone. "Don't get angry at me. Besides, where do you get off talking like _you're_ the one who's suffered the most? Do you have any idea what I saw in town today? I saw a girl half my age wearing something you wouldn't give a bum begging me for food because no one else would give her any. I saw a girl our age, maybe a year or two older, actually working as a prostitute in broad daylight just to earn money. What do you have to say about _that_?"

Naruto looked at her so firmly Sakura actually faltered and stepped back a bit. "Sakura-chan, I never said I was the only one who suffered. You however said I wasn't suffering at all."

"Well you never once looked like you were so how the hell was I supposed to know?" She defended.

Naruto gave her a hurt look. "Sakura-chan, a smile doesn't guarantee happiness anymore than a cloud guarantees rain."

Sakura was quite surprised to hear him say something that even came close to philosophical. Heck sometimes she was amazed his language skills went beyond 'More ramen'. Apparently Naruto had more on his mind than she gave him credit for, and more on his heart than she took seriously.

"I'll leave you alone right now." Sakura said as she left. As she left she stopped for a bit. "I don't know what else to say Naruto." She said before she walked off.

"Neither do I Sakura-chan, neither do I." Naruto said to himself as he went back to training.

* * *

Days later Naruto and Sakura barely said another word to each other. Apparently they really didn't know what else to say to each other, and both seemed to be in a bit of a stand-off, wanting the other to approach them first. Sakura found it extremely weird that after all the times she demanded he leave her alone, she was uncomfortable with him actually doing so.

Later it came the day when Kakashi was fully mobile again, but unfortunately he predicted this was the day Zabuza was too, and Tazuna would be in danger. Team Seven was positioned at the bridge during construction hours to protect the old man, though Naruto was left behind because he had exhausted himself training last night.

'I guess he really is trying to prove something.' Sakura thought as she stood close to Tazuna, her mind free to wander while her eyes kept watch for anything unusual. 'I'll give him some credit, he may not have as much talent as Sasuke-kun, but his determination is second-to-none.'

Too bad he wasn't there when Zabuza and his masked aide showed up and started a fight. Kakashi kept Zabuza occupied and the two seemed quite evenly matched. And Sasuke was trapped in a dome made of ice, created by a jutsu he couldn't copy or destroy so easily either. Sakura wanted to help, but she didn't know what she could do for either. All she could do was stand guard by Tazuna in case these two were a diversion so someone or something else could kill the bridge builder.

'Naruto we need you. You're the only one who can help us now.' Sakura thought, for once truly wanting her old annoyance to be around.

Her wish was granted, and he showed up. "Sorry I couldn't be here sooner, but some thugs were after Tsunami and Inari. But I beat them up. Your family's safe Tazuna."

The old man sighed. "Thanks kid. I owe you one, but we'll have to get out of this first."

"Naruto, go help Sasuke-kun. He's trapped in that ice dome." Sakura pleaded.

Naruto looked to see the ice prison, and could see Kakashi fighting Zabuza in a blanket of mist. Knowing which one he stood a better chance against, he headed towards Sasuke. "Sasuke!" He shouted.

'Don't give yourself away like that.' Sakura mentally groaned.

Next thing she knew, Naruto disappeared and was replaced by Sasuke, who had a few senbon sticking out of him, and Naruto's scream could be here inside the dome.

'What the...? What did he just-wait a minute, did Sasuke-kun just kawarimi himself with Naruto to avoid a hit?' Sakura asked herself, shocked by the idea but not entirely sure if it was something she should support or not.

* * *

Naruto was very surprised to see that he went from outside the dome to inside in a mere second, while Sasuke went from inside to outside just as quickly. That wasn't the bad part though, the bad part was when hundreds of ice-cold needles embedded themselves in his skin from all directions, making him look like a human pincushion.

Pained, he fell to his knees then his side trying not to yell. Luckily Haku was too stunned by this to add a follow-up attack right away, not to mention she felt bad about attacking this boy would had been nice to her in the forest days ago in the first place. Unfortunately she couldn't help him without disobeying Zabuza, and her master came first in all things to her.

Naruto had a hard time moving, and an even harder time using his chakra to help heal himself here. Haku's aim had been too good at that one attack, these ice senbon hitting many nerves and even a dozen tenketsu. Naruto's chakra system couldn't even incorporate Kyuubi's chakra, at least not right away. And one needles also impacted the seal's exact center.

'Guess I better finish him off. Sorry.' Haku told herself, allowing herself to fee some grief for what she was about to do. Readying another senbon attack, this one likely to put him out of his misery, she stopped when Naruto started to glow a silver-white color. Her moment of immobility stopped as soon as it came and she attacked again. "Hyoton Thousand Needle Jutsu."

The ice needles flew right at him, but when they hit him, they broke and bounced off, sounding like they were hitting metal rather than flesh. At the same time, the ice needles already in Naruto were melting, allowing his body to heal and a touch of red chakra poured out mixing with the silver-white chakra.

"What on earth is this? Haku asked herself.

She wasn't the only one wondering this. Zabuza and Kakashi stopped their own fight when they felt this. Sakura could even see light glowing from inside the dome and Sasuke, who had been hoping to kill Haku from behind while she was distracted eliminating Naruto, stopped to see what was going on.

'This... whatever this is, it can't be the kyuubi.' Kakashi told himself. 'It feels nothing like evil.'

Naruto regained the ability to stand up and the glow around him took shape. A set of white wings were on his back and a sword was in his right hand, both which were made out of this strange silver-white chakra. His body itself was colored from head to toe in the same color and it was impossible to tell where his clothes and skin separated. Also, there were red streaks all over him, forming a spiral on his stomach and rings at his wrist, ankles, elbows, knees, and down his spine between the chakra wings.

"What the heck is this?" He asked as he looked himself over.

'Even he doesn't know? At least that means he can't use it against me or Zabuza-sama.' Haku told herself before readying another attack. Since senbon wouldn't work, she's have to try something a bit more lethal. "Hyoton Thousand Kunai Jutsu."

Multiple kunai made of ice were thrown at him from the many ice mirrors and again Naruto couldn't dodge them all. Fortunately he didn't have to, since when they impacted his chakra aura they shattered like they were made of glass.

Sakura couldn't see what was going on but she could hear fighting continuing. "Sasuke-kun, help him. Don't just stand there."

The Rookie of the Year gave her an 'Are you stupid?' look then turned back to the renewed Kakashi vs. Zabuza fight, and smirked, clearly deciding that was more worth his time and effort. He tried to sneak into the mist to kill Zabuza from behind, but he was tackled by a large bulldog.

"This is out of your league kid." The dog told him.

Sasuke was not the kind of person who appreciated others telling him what his limits were or that he even had any to begin with. "Get the hell off me you mutt! Do you have any idea who I am?"

"You're a kid who's trying to bite off more than he can chew. Let Kakashi handle this."

"Sasuke-kun Naruto needs help!" Sakura reminded her favored teammate.

Ignoring her, Sasuke pulled out a kunai and tried to stab the dog pinning him down. It saw this coming and jumped off avoiding the hit, and looking very mad. Mad enough that it jumped at him again and bit him hard on the leg.

Back with Naruto, he could see that Haku's weapons were not affecting him, and he decided to try to fight back. Rather than try to catch up with the faster fighter, he took his light sword and struck one of the ice mirrors, cleaving it with ease. "Nice." He said before doing this with the others, leaving Haku with fewer places to move around.

Seeing this, Haku stepped out of her hiding spot and canceled out the crystal ice mirror jutsu. "You are quite strong. But I cannot allow you to interfere with Zabuza-sama's work."

"Why are you working for him?" Naruto asked, staring down the false hunter nin.

"Because I am his tool. He is the reason I am still alive. I owe him my life and will do everything in my power to see his wishes fulfilled."

Naruto was immediately reminded of the boy...or girl... the _person_ he met in the woods the day after he vented at Sakura, asking him if he had someone precious to protect, though he didn't understand why he just thought of that. "How could you follow a man like him?"

"Because he gives my life purpose. Can you imagine living yet having no reason to be alive? No one who values you or gives you something to look forward to? I lived like that for a long time, and then Zabuza-sama came along and gave me a purpose. You might deplore his methods and goals, but I'd rather be his tool then human trash."

Naruto found himself unsure what to do. "I... I understand completely. If I had been in your place I likely would have done the same. But unfortunately, I have a job of my own, and I must do it as much as you must do yours."

Haku nodded. "I'm sorry it came to this Naruto. I wish there had been another way."

Naruto's eyes widened. "Wait, how did you know my name?"

Haku didn't answer. Instead she readied a different jutsu, one of her more dangerous ones. 'I don't want to kill him, but I will not let Zabuza-sama down. Please forgive me Naruto, I wish we had been friends.' She told herself, remembering their brief encounter in the forest days ago. Then she finished her hand signs. "Hyoton River Entrapment Jutsu."

From under the bridge emerged a pillar of water like something out of a geyser, and it appeared to be quickly freezing. Before it became solid, Haku sent it silent signals to try and capture Naruto. If it succeeded, he would be frozen solid in a situation no non-ninja could survive at all and few ninja could survive for long.

Naruto jumped to dodge, and without meaning to took to the air with his chakra wings. He was surprised as anyone else and almost fell out of the air. Fortunately his desire to keep avoiding Haku's jutsu gave him the state of mind to keep aloft. It was going well, until...

"NO!" He shouted when he saw it was about to trap Sakura and Tazuna instead. Acting on pure instinct, he swung his chakra sword and the freezing water technique shattered and dissolved in mere seconds.

"Whoa." Tazuna muttered.

Sakura was more speechless. 'Naruto... thank you.'

'Just who are you Uzumaki Naruto?' Haku asked herself.

'Where did he get this?' Sasuke wondered.

* * *

Meanwhile, someone else was alerted to this use of power.

"Is this what I think this is?" An old man with one eye asked.

"It appears so. Someone has the power of a valkyrie." A woman his age told him.

"But a living mortal? And a MALE? How is this possible?" A younger maiden adorn in battle armor asked.

"Someone should go inspect this matter." A man in battle armor stated.

"But who?" The one-eyed man asked.

"I think I know who." The maiden said. "This boy is named Uzumaki. We have a valkyrie named that too. Send her. The connection should make learning from the boy easier."

"It's worth a shot." The armored man claimed.

The one-eyed man nodded. "Very well. Freya, send Kushina Uzumaki to Earth to learn about this boy. Frigg, please ask the Norns if they can tell us anything as well."

"Yes Lord Odin." The two women told him before departing, hoping to find answers to this strange development.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Naruto still wasn't sure what he was doing here, but he was certain he had the advantage here now. Turning to Haku, he held his sword up. "You still want to fight?"

"It doesn't matter what I want. Zabuza-sama needs me to fight and I will fight for him until I am of no use anymore." The ice user answer.

"I don't want to do this." Naruto said as he turned the materialized sword.

"You are strong, but I cannot simply let you kill me as long as I have some use to Zabuza-sama." Haku said before readied herself to create another crystal ice mirror jutsu, hoping this time it could withstand his power long enough for her to find a weak spot on him.

Anticipating this, Naruto swung his sword at his enemy, not wanting to kill her but wound her and make her stop this. He knew that as a ninja he was expected to kill, but he hadn't yet done that and a large part of him was hoping to delay doing so. Mostly out of fear that it would make him the monster so many were fond of labeling him as.

The light sword missed Haku's shoulder but cut into her hair and broke the edge of her mask, nicking her left cheek a bit enough to make her bleed. The crack spread across the mask and then it broke off completely, exposing Haku's face to Naruto.

The whiskered blonde silently gasped when he saw the fake hunter nin's face and stepped back. "You... you're... you're...?"

Haku smiled gently and nodded. "Yes, I'm Haku. I'm sorry. I had hoped we could have avoided any fighting, but it wasn't meant to be."

"Why didn't you kill me when you had the perfect opportunity?" Naruto asked. "If you really were just Zabuza's tool, you would have eliminated the threat before I had a chance to do anything. But you didn't, you made a personal choice to let me live. And that proves you're not a tool, you're a person dammit and you _can_make your own choices. Even here."

Haku showed no change in her expression, but internally she was affected by his worlds. She did have a choice in killing Naruto or not that day she met him in the woods. At the time she rationalized her inaction as the wiser of two choices, saying he might have reacted sooner than she could attack and his death would have alerted his team all that soon and made things difficult for Zabuza. But on some level of her mind, she had spared him because she herself didn't want him dead yet. She just didn't realize it until now.

"Even so, I don't have a choice here. I must kill you."

Naruto put down his sword. "I don't believe that. There is always a choice, and I'll prove it to you." 'I sure hope this works.' He thought as he closed his eyes and willed whatever he was doing to stop as if he was using regular chakra. In no time, the white glow faded and everything with it disappeared. Naruto was normal again.

Haku was confused. "What are you doing?"

"Giving you back the ability to choose. Attack, or don't attack. Free shot. Your choice. Not mine, not Zabuza's, yours. What will you do?" Naruto said before spreading his arms just standing there making himself a target.

Sakura could see him do this and was as astonished as Haku was. "Naruto, what in Kami-sama's name are you thinking?"

"I'm taking a leap of faith, and saving someone from themselves." He told his teammate without turning around to face her.

Haku found herself having an unexpected yet very hindering dilemma. Her initial thought was to rush forward and cut Naruto's throat, but her body refused to respond. 'This has to be a trick. No one would do this unless they were suicidal or had a trick that requires the opponent to strike first. That must be what it is.'

And yet she saw no anticipation in his eyes and his hands were kept apart to make hand signs for jutsu impossible. But as she looked closer, she saw a sense of calm in his eyes instead of anything else. 'Either he's accepted his fate with serenity, or he believes I don't have the courage to do anything to him.'

"Well are you going to kill him or not?" Sasuke shouted, and even Sakura could tell he was actually talking to Haku, not Naruto.

"Sasuke-kun how can you say that? And why aren't you helping him?"

"Keh, like I'd waste my time helping the dobe. I'm just watching to see what his power can do. If he wants to throw his life away like this, so what? It's not like anyone really wants him alive in the first place." Sasuke replied.

Sakura was disgusted to see his apathy towards their teammate, but it wasn't just his words that got to her. 'Is that how I come across about Naruto? I feel like I'm looking at myself.'

Haku ignored all the side banter, trying to make herself do something. She did start a short set of one-handed hand signs and an ice kunai formed in her hand. She then lunged at Naruto and brought up her weapon, aiming for his neck. As she moved, he did nothing. She moved fast and true, and the kunai got right next to his skin.

And then it just stopped.

Haku just stood there, her body and arm trembling as she held the weapon close but not close enough to him. All he felt was a chill, no damage or pain. He didn't back away, he didn't move her arm from him, he didn't even breathe harder or sweat hard. Haku saw this, and despite this completely free shot she'd never get again in a million years, her body refused to cooperate.

Her hand dropped the kunai which broke on the bridgestone and she collapsed on her knees, tears flooding down her cheeks. "I... I can't do it! I can't kill someone like this! I'm not a murderer! Zabuza-sama... I failed you." Her weeping overcame her voice.

Naruto knelt down and placed his hands on her shoulders. She did not reject his touch. "What's wrong with not killing someone because it doesn't feel right? What's wrong with deciding for yourself instead of just doing what you're told?"

"I can't serve Zabuza-sama anymore. I'm a disgrace, a broken tool he'll have no use for anymore. Serving him is the reason I live, and now I'm nothing more than a corpse that still breathes."

"You said he took you in and trained you right?" Naruto asked. "Why would he do that if he was just going to get rid of you first time you couldn't do a job for him? Do you really have so little faith in your sensei? And even if he _is_ like that, is that a man you want to give your soul to?"

"You don't understand. No matter what kind of person Zabuza-sama is, he's all I have. Silver you can get is more valuable than gold you can't, and soon enough to you there's no difference between it and gold when it's all you can have. You have options, you have friends, you have a home. The one thing I have in the world is Zabuza-sama. I can't lose him."

"But you can have options too." Naruto said. "Would you truly desire death because of a failure? Would your master truly be honored if you simply threw away your life without a fight?"

"How can you look at me and tell me how to live? You don't know me, you don't know what I've been thru."

Seeing that no fighting was going on and that Naruto wasn't using his strange new power anymore, Sasuke approached and hit the side of his head hard, making Naruto fall onto his side. "Enough with this crap! I always knew you were pathetic but I never knew you were _this_ pathetic!"

Haku was shocked. "How could you just attack your friend like that?"

"Friend? That worthless waste of flesh? I have no friends, I have no family, I have no loved one. I am an avenger, and battle is all I live for. And you will be my first kill. Feel honored you died at the hand of your superior." Sasuke said pulling out a kunai ready to drive it into her neck or eyes or where he could as long as it was lethal.

Haku felt anger at this Konoha nin, and briefly remembered her father, acting similar to Sasuke saying he could kill her and her mother because they were worthless compared to himself. In her anger her survival instinct overloaded her depression and she pulled out some metal senbon.

Sasuke drove the kunai down and Haku blocked it with her needles, even using them like chopsticks to pin the kunai in place. Sasuke tried to compensate for this by pushing down harder, and even though the result wasn't immediate, it was clear Haku couldn't hold him back for long.

Luckily she didn't have to, for Sasuke was tackled from the side by Sakura. Caught completely by surprise, the Uchiha was taken down by the pinkette. Naruto had recovered and seen this, and he was even more surprised than Haku was.

"Sasuke-kun! What on earth were you thinking?" Sakura shouted, not entirely certain what shocked her more, the fact he attacked Naruto so thoughtlessly or the fact he talked like being killed by him was a privilege.

Uninjured except for his pride and a slight sting he felt on his side, Sasuke glared at his kunoichi teammate. "Who the hell do you think you are?" He then swung his kunai at her, and she reacted back jumping back but unfortunately not fast enough and the end of the kunai drove itself into her left shoulder, though that may not have been what Sasuke had been hoping to strike.

Sakura screamed in pain, loud enough that even both Kakashi and Zabuza briefly paused when they heard it. Zabuza worried it was Haku screaming, but couldn't confirm with the hidden mist jutsu in the way. The wind had dissipated most of it, but some still remained. Also both were getting worn out fighting the other and knew trying to leave the fight to check would make them vulnerable to any sneak attack from the other.

Naruto was free and rushed to help his teammate. He pulled Sakura away from Sasuke, kicked Sasuke in a stomping manner to keep him down, and held Sakura close. "Sakura-chan?" He saw the wound with the kunai still in it. "Hold on." He ripped off his right sleeve then pulled out the kunai. Sakura yelled, not as loud this time, and blood began pouring out. Naruto quickly wrapped his sleeve around the wound and started to apply pressure. "Keep your hands on the wound. This should hold until we get you better help."

"Naruto... thank you." Sakura quietly said, for once not minding his closeness in the least.

Kakashi and Zabuza had to stop fighting for a moment, both seeing their current strategies weren't working. Zabuza couldn't land a serious hit on Kakashi, and Kakashi couldn't land a serious hit on Zabuza. Only one thing could turn the battle in Kakashi's favor, and he was now ready to use it, although he was fairly certain he would only have one shot at it.

"You're a worthy opponent Zabuza-san, but I'm afraid this cannot continue." The cycloptic jounin stated, starting up a set of quick hand signs before gathering chakra around his right hand and forearm. Zabuza was stunned by it, swearing he saw actual chakra itself being used here, when in reality it was just standard lightning element manipulation. "Behold, Raikiri."

Kakashi then darted forward, hoping this jutsu strong enough to cut a lightning bolt in half would penetrate Zabuza's sword and if he was really lucky hit the missing nin too. Relying on all his experience, Zabuza darted forward with Kubikiribocho ready to cleave Kakashi in half during this brief time he was exposed. They both knew one way or another one of them would fall right after this last clash.

Haku, who had been watching Naruto treat Sakura, saw her master possibly about to die and got up to go help him. Naruto saw this and knew exactly what she had planned. "So you have no faith in your master at all do you?"

The ice user froze (metaphorically but good word use if I do say so myself) and looked at the whiskered blonde. "What?"

"You know Zabuza's strength better than anyone I'm assuming. Is he so weak that the only way he can get out of a battle is for you to bail him out?" Naruto asked.

Haku didn't reply immediately, but she didn't have to. In this time, Kakashi's raikiri was reaimed from Zabuza to his sword and hit it at the base of the blade. The lightning blade was sharp enough and forceful enough to pierce thru the metal blade while Kakashi briefly used the sword as leverage to deliver a spin kick to Zabuza's head. The former Kiri nin wasn't as agile as the former Konoha anbu captain and took the hit hard, resulting in him nearly falling off the bridge and his sword broke in half in the process.

Not to say Kakashi got away without a scratch. Moving that way broke his wrist and he knew from this point on using more jutsu would be likely to kill him. And the end of Zabuza's sword did manage to cut into his left side deep enough to draw blood. Kubikiribocho had already tried using that blood to repair the damage it got from the raikiri, but it didn't happen fast enough. Anyway, Kakashi was on his knees panting and clutching his left side while Zabuza was flat on the ground with his right arm broken from the impact.

"Zabuza-sama!" Haku shouted then dashed towards him. 'I should have moved sooner, then maybe he wouldn't be hurt. That boy distracted me, like he knew what I would have done.' She knelt down beside him. "Zabuza-sama?"

He laughed snidely and coughed up blood at the same time. "Calm down Haku, I've lived thru worse."

"I should have been faster. I should have taken the hit for you." Haku wept, but stopped when she felt a light hit on top of her head. Not a painful one, just a tap to get her attention.

"And here I thought you got over those suicidal tendencies. I keep telling you you're no good to me dead."

"You can live without me. I can't live without you." Haku countered.

Before Zabuza could reply, a sinister laugh could be heard. "How disappointing, and here I thought you were supposed to be a demon." Zabuza immediately recognized the voice, and with the mist now gone could clearly see Gato standing at the end of the uncompleted bridge, with several armed goons behind him.

"Gato? Why are you here?" Zabuza asked, not liking the look of this.

"You failed Zabuza, so change of plans." The short businessman answered. "Actually, that's not exactly accurate. I never did intend on paying you for your work; I just now have a legitimate excuse for it. Hiring ninja is expensive and they may turn against their employer, especially fugitive ones, so I only hire the ones I can dispose of. Smart and cost-effective wouldn't you say?"

All three members of Team Seven were surprised to hear this. Up until now, the idea that the employer could be an enemy too had never crossed any of their minds. 'Who is this monster?' Naruto asked himself.

Zabuza made himself stand up with his one good arm. "Kakashi, now that I have no reason to attack the old man I have no reason to fight you anymore." Tazuna heard this and immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

Kakashi struggled back to his feet too. "You're right. So what do we do now?"

"Isn't it obvious? Get rid of the midget!" Naruto shouted.

"Midget?" Gato repeated, infuriated.

"Yeah, midget. I mean, people call me short but I'm still young. So what's your excuse?" Naruto yelled at the corrupt tycoon.

"GET HIM!" Gato ordered ad his men charged.

Zabuza immediately grabbed what remained of Kubikiribocho with his left hand and stood in front of the goons, making them pause. "Kids got the right idea, and I don't know about the others, but I intend to turn the guy who tried to stiff me into a stiff."

"With what? That broken knife?" A random goon asked.

"A broken blade can still cut, especially when it's my blade." Zabuza warned before charging forward. Haku could only stand back and watch, knowing she was not suited to taking on a crowd this size.

The Konoha nin watched in stunned awe as Zabuza moved with the speed and reflexes that could only come from experience, savagery, and fearlessness. His broken Kubikiribocho made excellent use of the blood it drew, using the iron in the blood to rebuild itself little by little from the base of the blade. And while the Konoha nin couldn't understand how the sword was doing it, they did see the fact it was repairing itself the more it was used.

In less than a minute, all of Gato's goons were dead, some still on the bridge and some fallen off it, and only Zabuza was still standing. He had broken weapons sticking out of him in random spots and he looked exhausted just standing under his own power, but he was still alive and glaring at Gato.

At that moment, the citizens of Wave lead by Inari showed up with whatever they could find as a weapon. They were shocked by the bloodbath remains they encountered, but seeing Gato made them too angry to focus on anything else. "Gato! Leave our country at once and never return!" Several citizens shouted out, no longer sounding afraid of him.

Instead, Gato was the one who was quivering. "Can't we work something out?"

"Yes, you die and we don't. Sound fair?" Zabuza said, coughing up more blood. By now his facial bandages were torn off so he wouldn't risk choking on his own blood.

Seeing only one way out, Gato tried to run. Unfortunately Zabuza was the better runner of the two and caught up to him. Swinging his executioner sword, he decapitated the shorter man with ease. The momentum of everything made both the head and body of Gato fall into the sea, never to be seen again.

Out of energy and taxed by combat, Zabuza finally let himself collapse and rest. Haku rushed towards him, seeing he was far from fine. "Zabuza-sama? Don't move. I'll get you somewhere where you can heal."

The missing nin smirked. "Haku, we both know moving me would only make me lose more blood."

Haku looked at the crowd, who were cheering that Gato was finally gone. She even thought she heard a chorus of 'Ding dong the witch is dead' start up. "Is anyone here a doctor?" She shouted, hoping someone better at treating wounds than her was here. Unfortunately, no one could hear her. No one except the Konoha ninja.

Team Seven stepped forward, with Kakashi being supported by Naruto after covering his sharingan again. "Is he okay?" Sakura asked, still using her hands to apply pressure to her own wound.

"Please, I know we were enemies not more than five minutes ago, but I beg of you, help me save Zabuza-sama." Haku pleaded on hands and knees.

Being the most mobile and hands-free ninja at the moment, Sasuke stepped forward, but instead of pulling out his personal first aid supplies, he pulled out a kunai and jabbed it into Zabuza's chest, cutting into his heart. Everyone gasped at seeing this, even Kakashi.

"Sasuke, why did you do that?" Naruto shouted.

"Now I can say I killed a rogue nin and with witnesses no one can ever say I didn't." The dark-haired avenger calmly answered, sounding like he did something to be proud of.

Haku saw red and reacted by punching Sasuke in the jaw so hard it reminded Naruto of the times Sakura hit him. In fact everyone could hear his jawbone breaking from the hit. But before she could do more, Kakashi hit a pressure point on her that made her pass out.

Naruto looked at Zabuza, who was still alive albeit barely. "You know Haku practically worships you. If you die what's he going to do now?"

Zabuza looked right at Naruto. "Kid, whatever happens, please give Haku a reason to live. I don't want to see her join me in the afterlife for a good long time. If she dies soon, I will come back and kill you."

Naruto looked nervous but nodded. "I swear Zabuza Momochi, that Haku will not die for a long time."

Zabuza smiled and closed his eyes. "Thanks kid."

Then he breathed no more.

Everyone looked at him and gave him a moment of silent respect. The moment ended quickly thanks to Naruto.

"Wait, did he say Haku was a girl?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Throughout the town there was a party of Mardi Gras proportions, and despite the fact the townspeople originally barely had anything to their names that morning, somehow they got a good supply of alcohol passing around and music blaring and overall a good time was had despite the lack of luxury in it.

Team Seven however were not a part of it. Kakashi was exhausted and knew he'd need no less than a week to return to normal, his sharingan taxing him if nothing else, and Sasuke was sedated so Tsunami could mend and set his broken jaw. Though he wouldn't be able to talk or eat solid food until they got him back to Konoha with him like this.

As for Naruto and Sakura, that night they were working to give Zabuza a grave while Haku watched and kept near the body, still silently weeping.

Sakura looked at Haku then to Naruto, who wasn't wearing his orange jacket right now. "Naruto, I think you should talk to Haku when we're done." She whispered.

He nodded. "I know."

"Also, I'd like to talk to you too when you have the time." She added.

He looked a bit confused here, but not without reason. Usually Sakura hated it when he tried to start a conversation, and now she actually wanted one? "Why?"

"I... I'll tell you when we're alone." She said, focusing her eyes back on their digging. Suddenly she found it hard to actually tell him what she wanted to.

Naruto nodded and pressed no further.

After a while, the grave was big enough and deep enough. "We're ready." Naruto told Haku.

The ice user was still reluctant, but allowed Naruto to make some clones and place the body in the grave. She formed some flowers made of ice and placed them on Zabuza's body before the clones started covering him with dirt.

Sakura spoke to Haku without looking at the grieving girl. "Hey, if you need another girl to talk you, feel free to do so with me. I may not know you well, but I suspect you might enjoy some fellow female company."

Haku didn't respond, but at least gave no indication she had no interest in the offer.

Sakura walked away, and the two remaining at the grave at first didn't know what to say. Naruto had no idea how to console someone who was grieving, and Haku felt slightly bitter towards him for keeping her from saving Zabuza in the first place.

"I understand if you hate me." Naruto said, surprising the girl. "I mean, I tried saving your life but it cost him his. Why wouldn't you be angry?"

"Why me? Why did you do it?"

"You could have let me die twice already, yet you didn't. I was returning the favor." He told her.

She turned to him. "That's it? Simple as that?"

"No, but isn't that reason enough?"

Haku shook her head. "No it isn't. Why did you really interfere with my role? Why did you force me to live without Zabuza-sama?"

"I didn't plan on him dying. But I figured you had no reason to die yet either. I mean, you're two years older than me at the most. You still have your whole life ahead of you, and Zabuza wants you to live it. Are you really going to make his sacrifice worthless?"

"No, I can't do that, but I don't know what else I can do."

"Why don't you talk with my sensei? I'm sure he might at least have some ideas. Just please let me know what you decided on." Naruto told her. Then he stepped away. "I'll leave you alone for a bit. If you need to talk I'm available." He then walked away.

Haku, alone, looked at Kubikiribocho left next to the grave. 'They said it rightfully belonged to me now. I guess that's a sign they're not against me. If they were they'd just confiscate it and keep me bound and gagged for who knows what their village does to my kind. Maybe this is a test, because now they know my face and some of my history. I could run off then be hunted by their village for the rest of my life, or kill them first and risk being killed now before I succeed. Or maybe, just maybe, these guys really mean me no harm. I'm so confused.'

She shook her head to clear her thoughts then grabbed the large sword's handle. "But there's one thing I'm not confused on. This is Zabuza-sama's sword, not mine. Even in death, it is his." With that, she drove the tip into the still soft soil from all the digging and create a sort of grave marker for her deceased mentor. "Rest in peace Zabuza-sama. Thank you for giving me a reason to live. With that reason gone, I don't know what to do anymore. What should I do?"

But of course, he could offer no answer.

* * *

The walk to Tazuna's house from Zabuza's grave took about fifteen minutes. Not surprisingly, Sakura and Kakashi were waiting for Naruto when he showed up, though Kakashi was resting on the sofa whereas Sakura was seated by the table. Naruto took a deep breath. "Before either of you ask, no I have no idea what that white light thing earlier was. I've never done anything like that before and never heard of anyone who could. I was kinda hoping you knew something Kakashi-sensei."

The silver-haired jounin shook his head. "That was unlike anything I've ever seen. But since we don't know the origin, can you at least describe what it did for you Naruto?"

The blonde thought it over, trying to recall everything he could. "I was hurt before it happened, and I think I couldn't call on my chakra at all for a moment."

"Not even... in your special reserve?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto got the message and nodded. "Yeah, I think."

"Special reserve?" Sakura repeated, confused. "What's that?"

"Let's call it a birth defect of mine." Naruto told her. "I have enormous reserves, and probably more chakra than most of our jounins, even Kakashi-sensei."

Sakura was wide-eyed. "Really? Sounds like a blessing rather than a defect."

Naruto looked down, forlorn. "Trust me Sakura-chan, it's anything but a blessing."

"Why?"

"Because it screws up my control and makes performing half of all ninjutsu and virtually all genjutsu impossible for me. I failed the academy clone jutsu not because I'm untalented, but because of a physical disability. And it makes most of the ninja resentful towards me because they hate seeing someone young like me surpass them like this, so I've never had a proper teacher show me how to get better. I learned the shadow clones completely on my own."

Sakura was silently surprised. 'I knew his solid clones couldn't be an easy thing to learn, but... I never thought about how he learned that but failed the academy version.'

Kakashi mentally smiled. 'Good cover Naruto, avoid the complete truth by telling enough to be acceptable.'

Sakura cleared her throat. "And this had nothing to do with that... white light... angel armor thing you did?"

"I don't think so." The whiskered blonde answered.

"Can you do it again?"

Naruto didn't look forlorn anymore, and thought it over. "Maybe. Here goes nothing." He closed his eyes and tried calling on his chakra like he did know how to do.

Nothing happened.

"Maybe it needs a specific trigger. We'll have to test it out later when I'm up to the task." Kakashi sighed before sighing tiredly. "But for now, you two just stay out of trouble and try not to fight with each other. No need for another of us to be out of commission."

Naruto sighed. "Alright then, I'll just go out and get some fresh air then." He then turned away.

"Naruto, can I go with you?" Sakura asked.

The blonde stopped in his tracks and turned towards her. "Wouldn't you rather nurse Sasuke back to health?" He soundly genuinely confused, not jealous or spiteful.

"He's not going anywhere for a while. Please? I just wanted to talk to you for a bit." Sakura answered.

Still confused, Naruto nodded. "Alright."

Kakashi was pleased to see them act like this and leave the house peacefully. 'Looks like all that teamwork effort hasn't gone to waste. And now I have some peace and quiet.'

* * *

Naruto and Sakura were walking away from the house and Zabuza's grave. They were on the edge of a forest and outside the town's boundaries, and it was already night. But as ninja, neither were afraid of anything happening to them.

"Sakura-chan, if this is about me hurting Sasuke, I'm sorry. I was just trying to do my job." Naruto told his teammate.

Sakura was confused. "Naruto, you didn't hurt Sasuke-kun. I saw the whole thing, you never did anything to him. So why did you say that?"

"I don't know, isn't that the whole reason you wanted to talk to me? To tell me what I did wrong to your precious boyfriend and how stupid I was?"

Sakura frowned but sighed. "I guess I deserve that. But trust me Naruto, I'm not at all angry at you. Instead, I'm concerned."

"Really?" He asked, confused but not unpleased.

She nodded. "Yes, something strange happened to you and we don't even know if it's a good thing. Also Sasuke-kun used you to take a hit for him. Aren't you hurt from that?"

Naruto shook his head. "Not anymore. I've always been a good healer. I'm more concerned about your injury."

Sakura gingerly touched her wound, now properly bandaged up. Naruto's sleeve was being resewn onto his jacket by Tsunami. "Thank you for helping me by the way. But still, why did Sasuke-kun do that to us both? We're his teammates."

Naruto looked hesitant. "You really want my opinion on that?" She nodded. "Fine, but no hitting. You asked me after all." He sighed to give him a chance to put his thoughts into the proper words. "Personally I think he was pissed that he wasn't kicking Haku's ass like it was nothing. He was struggling just to stay even with her and he hates thinking he can't win. I mean, come on Sakura-chan I know you love the guy and all, but even you have to admit Sasuke does have a bit of an ego on him."

Sakura was about to deny this, but once she opened her mouth no words would come out. She then closed her mouth and eyes and nodded. "Yeah, he does, I admit that. But I always thought it was justified. I mean, he was Rookie of the Year after all."

Naruto sighed wearily. "Sakura-chan, that only mattered back in school. This is the real world. Did you think Zabuza or Haku cared he was the best in our class? Hell, remember how Zabuza became a genin by killing everyone else in his class? If Sasuke had been in the same class as Zabuza, do you think Zabuza would have spared him?"

Sakura gasped in horror at the thought. 'If that happened, it would have definitely been a duel to the death, and I'm not even sure Sasuke-kun could have won that one.'

Naruto looked away from the pinkette towards the horizon, almost as if he couldn't look her in the eyes for what he was about to say. "Sakura-chan, I know Sasuke is a hotshot in Konoha. I never forgot, considering no one ever lets me forget my lot in life. But what you and he forgot is outside Konoha he's just another genin to the rest of the world. He has no real experience in these sort of things, and that makes him more vulnerable to threats. And unless this team stays together, he always will be."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, finding herself impressed by Naruto now. He sounded so unlike what she expected of him it was a welcome change to her.

"Sakura-chan, remember how Kakashi-sensei said we're placed in teams to improve our teamwork skills and get used to working with others?" Naruto asked. Sakura nodded. "That's not the only reason. Jiji once told me it's also a safety precaution. When one of us is attacked or in danger, the others come forward to help them, and they in return will be helped by the others. From there, trust and teamwork will grow naturally."

Sakura took this in and found herself agreeing with the logic. She already found herself trusting Naruto a little bit more than before thanks to him treating her wounds, and Sasuke a little bit less for giving her that wound in the first place. That last part made her think of something else. "But what if we don't help each other like that?"

Naruto shrugged. "I think the answer's obvious."

"Naruto?" Sakura asked, getting him to look back at her. "I know Sasuke-kun did something wrong, but we should still give him another chance. I don't want our team to fall apart so soon or easily."

Naruto closed his eyes and slowly nodded. "Yeah, you're right. But Sakura-chan, for this to really work, I need you to stop hitting me so much. I get it that you love Sasuke and not me, but can't you at least treat me like a friend?"

Sakura was confused. "I already treat you like a friend Naruto."

The whiskered blonde gave her an irritated look. "Do you punch all your friends? Because I've never once seen you hit Ino." He then crossed her arms, as if challenging any denial.

The pinkette didn't know how to react, but looked quite upset and hung her head. "I'm sorry Naruto. I thought it was okay since my mother told me it was okay to hit you. You're right that I never did hit Ino-Pig before." She then turned her back to Naruto. "I doubt you'll forgive me, but I truly am sorry."

"I forgive you Sakura-chan, but why the change of heart?" Naruto asked looking at her. He still cared very much for her and was curious as to why she suddenly apologized.

"It was during the battle, when I saw Sasuke-kun being so callous towards you. I think I saw the person I was becoming. I don't want to be that person." Sakura turned around with tears starting to form in her eyes. "How can you forgive me so easily? I've done nothing worth forgiving and you forgive me as if I've done nothing wrong. Why?"

"Because I like you Sakura-chan. I don't want to hold a grudge against you." He answered.

Sakura felt her heart ache at what she felt was undeserved admiration for herself. "But why do you like me? Why don't you hate me instead?"

"Because... you're similar to me." He told her, surprising her. "You were picked on a lot when you were a kid like I was. No one wanted to be your friend, everyone made fun of you, and everyone said you had no future as a ninja. I was in the same position, then I saw you made friends with Ino and I thought if you could do that maybe I could make friends too."

"But... why were so persistent? If I had been you I would have stopped the first time someone hit me." She asked.

Naruto sighed. "I already lost my chance to be friends with the other girl who was being bullied thanks to her family. I didn't want to lose any chance to be friends with you."

'Other girl?' Sakura asked herself. 'The only other person I can remember being picked on back then was...' She mentally gasped. 'Hinata? Naruto tried to be friends with Hinata first but her family stopped him? This doesn't make sense.' She cleared her throat. "Naruto, do you remember who that girl was?"

He shook his head. "No, I was beaten up pretty good that day and got a concussion from it. All I can remember is that it happened, but I can't remember anything about who was involved except that the girl had dark hair. When I woke up in the hospital, I was given a note by a masked dark-haired man that said if I came anywhere near that girl again they'd gut me like a fish and even the hokage couldn't stop them."

Sakura was so horrified at hearing that she actually tasted bile. "Why? Why would someone make such a threat to you when you were just a kid? What kind of monster says that to a child?"

"They weren't the only ones. If I told you half the threats I've received you wouldn't sleep tonight."

"But... why do they threaten you like this? Your pranks can't be that bad." Sakura countered, looking for something rational here.

"It's not because of my pranks." He answered simply, turning away. "It's never been because of my pranks."

"Then why?" Sakura pleaded, desperate to know.

Naruto took a moment to reply. "Why don't you ask your mother why she wanted you to hit me all those times first?"

Sakura could see him lightly quivering. 'Is he crying? Or trying not to cry?' Acting without realizing what she was doing, she hugged him from behind, feeling him tense up upon contact. "Naruto, I promise I will be a real friend to you from now on. I won't hit you again, even if Mom says otherwise. I'll... I may even take you up on your date offer before we go back to Konoha."

He put his hand on hers. "Sakura-chan, don't pity me like that. You still want to date Sasuke after all."

"I'll decide who I want to date Naruto. And if I have to choose between the boy who stabbed me and the boy who helped me, I'll go with the second one." The pinkette told her teammate. "It's the least I can do to be a real friend."

"Thanks Sakura-chan. That means a lot to me."

* * *

Neither teen did anything that night since they had no idea what they even could do, so they went back to Tazuna's house. Haku chose to stay a bit longer, having no idea where to go from here. She slept in the same room as Sakura, but the two barely had anything to say to each other.

Naruto slept on the couch in the living room, wanting to give Kakashi some quiet and some space away from Sasuke, who still was in a bad mood from the battle. He slept comfortably, but a knock at the door woke him right up.

"Ugh. Who'd show up this early?" He asked as he rubbed his eyes and stretched, then opened the door. "Yes?"

It took a moment for his eyes to focus from the sleep and in the morning light, but he saw two adult women about Tsunami's age in front of him. Both had long hair flowing to their hips but one was scarlet and the other was golden. The redhead had violet eyes and wore a purple housewife dress and the blonde had red eyes and wore a royal blue tunic dress.

"Uzumaki?" The blonde woman asked.

"Huh?"

"Is your name Uzumaki?" The blonde woman repeated.

Naruto reflexively tensed. "Yes. Why?"

Both women smiled. "I've got something for you." The blonde added.

"What?" Naruto asked, curious.

"Your mother." The redhead answered. "Me."


	4. Chapter 4

_To settle any confusion, this is not a crossover with Valkyrie Profile. I have not played the games. This is more of a crossover with European mythology with Norse myths being the base of it all._**  
**

**Chapter Four**

Naruto looked at these women in front of him, particularly the one who claimed to be his mother, and did something that once again demonstrated his reputation as unpredictable was deserved.

"Nice try." He then closed the door.

On the outside, the two women were quite shocked. They weren't entirely sure what to expect, but this certainly wasn't it.

On the inside, Naruto clenched his eyes, teeth, and fists. 'I will not go thru this again. I will not!'

Since the door wasn't locked, the blonde woman opened it. "That was rather rude you know."

He gave her an angry look. "Get lost. This wasn't funny when I was a kid and it's not funny now."

"What are you talking about?" Kushina asked.

"Like I'm going to talk to complete strangers about my past. Now get lost already!" He all but yelled.

"I'm afraid not young man." The blonde stated. "We've come a long way and we're not going to turn around just because a child tells us to. Now, answer our questions."

Naruto's glare unnerved them both. He glowered at them both like he loathed them down to the very core of their souls for an offense they didn't understand. But he also had tears brewing in the corners of his eyes, which were starting to turn red.

Kushina stepped forward, but Naruto threw a kunai at her then ran upstairs. Kushina's quick reflexes allowed her to catch the weapon, and she gasped when she did. "He... he was aiming for my heart. What happened to make my baby this way?"

"We better find out. But that look in his eyes tells me we may have opened a festering wound." The blonde told the redhead.

Kushina tried to run upstairs, but halfway upstairs she ran into someone and both fell down. Kushina suffered the worst of it because she fell down the stairs, but she wasn't hurt. "Sorry about that." She said before she even saw who her obstacle had been.

She looked up the stairs and saw a man with silver hair and a black mask on half his face. "Wait a minute, Kakashi-kun?"

Kakashi saw her and immediately recognized her. But like Naruto, he didn't believe this was the real Kushina. "Who are you and why are you disguised?" He got up and took a defensive stance, ready for the worst.

"I'm not disguised. It's really me, Kushina Uzumaki."

"Nice try, but I knew the real Kushina and she's been dead for twelve years."

"I know. But I'm back on business."

Kakashi scoffed. "Sure, you came back from the dead on business. Happens all the time. My father was in Konoha last week to oversee construction of a new building."

"I know how it sounds but as Freya is my witness I am telling you the truth Kakashi Hatake."

The blonde waved to the masked jounin. "Hi I'm Freya, one of the Vanir goddesses."

"Never heard of you, so excuse me if I doubt you're any kind of goddess." Kakashi told her.

"Enough! I just want to speak with my son." Kushina insisted.

"Looks to me like he doesn't want to speak with you. And given what happened to him I'm not surprised." Kakashi replied.

"What are you talking about?" Kushina asked.

"I'm not convinced you are the real Kushina, and until your identity is confirmed one way or the other I'm not telling you a damn thing about that boy."

"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura called out to her teacher, making him turn to face her. "What's going on? I just saw Naruto jump out a window and run off into the woods."

'Damn, he did exactly what I feared he would do.' The cycloptic jounin moaned. "Sakura, Naruto's not in the best of moods right now. You should probably go find him to make sure he doesn't do anything foolish and for your own safety don't hit him for any reason. He might retaliate this time. If you must, take that Haku girl with you since she might prove useful in keeping him under control."

Sakura didn't know what bothered her more here: the fact that her sensei was so quick to believe she'd hit Naruto when he was down, or his worry that for once Naruto might hit back. "I'll try, but what about Sasuke-kun? Shouldn't he help?"

"Absolutely not." Kakashi ordered. "Sasuke would only make things worse, even with his jaw shut. You two go find Naruto, Sasuke will stay here with me in case I need back-up."

"You aren't planning on fighting me are you Kakashi?" Kushina asked, itching to go after her son but staying put since she knew that would only make her look worse here.

"If I must, I must. Sakura, go. Now."

"Y-yes Sensei." The pinkette said before disappearing down the hall to get Haku.

"How can I prove to you I'm the real Kushina Kakashi?" Kushina asked.

"You should already know how to do that, 'Kushina'." He told her, sarcastic in the name use.

* * *

Within a minute Sakura and Haku were outside heading in the direction Sakura saw Naruto run towards. Haku was not hard to convince, though she hadn't said why.

"Thanks for doing this. I've heard that Naruto can give even the Anbu trackers of Konoha trouble." Sakura told the hyoton user.

"Well you're in luck. Tracking was one of the many things Zabuza-sama taught me."

"I'm sorry for your lose. I know I shouldn't be, given his background, but I guess even criminals have family that mourn their deaths."

Haku looked a bit melancholy at that to say the least. "Everyone's done something they're not proud of, but Zabuza-sama did have his reasons for the path he took."

"What kind of reason did he have?" Sakura asked, curious about the reasons for becoming a wanted fugitive. While she was aware that ninja did occasionally turn rogue, she had never actually heard why that is, except for those like Itachi escaping the law.

"To stop the blood feuds." Haku said.

"What blood feuds? Was it against your clan?"

"No, it was against bloodlines in general. After the Third Shinobi War the people of Kiri began to see anyone with a bloodline such as hyoton as evil. It didn't matter who or how old they were, if you had a kekkei genkai, you were demon spawn to them all. And a few years ago, the Yondaime Mizukage decided to exterminate all of us with them."

"How did you survive?"

"I escaped when my father was trying to kill me after he already killed my mother. I lost control of my hyoton and killed him and his entire group. After that I ran off, and it didn't take long for me to find a place where no one knew who I was or what I had. Problem was no one wanted to help a street urchin, which is what I became. No one until Zabuza-sama came along and gave me a purpose again." Haku said as they entered a clearing. "Hey, this is where I first met Naruto."

Sakura looked around but didn't see the whiskered blonde. "Too bad he's not here now. Like I said, this may take awhile."

"Tell me more about him." Haku said when they continued their search.

"What would you like to know?" Sakura asked.

"Just what kind of person he's like. Zabuza-sama asked him to take care of me, but I'd like to know if he's the kind of man I want to receive care from."

"Aren't you old enough to go out on your own anyway?"

Haku sighed sadly. "Old enough I am, and capable of surviving I am too. But... I hate being alone. That's why Zabuza-sama entrusted me to him, because he hoped a boy kind enough to spare my life is the kind of person I'd want to live with."

"You barely know Naruto and you're already considering the idea of being with him on a regular basis? Wow, you must really hate being alone." Sakura commented.

"The worst time of my life was when I was abandoned and invisible to others. I'll do anything to avoid repeating that. Besides, are you saying Naruto-san is a poor choice of company?"

"To be honest, he's not my first choice for company, but... I can no longer say I hate it when he's around either." Sakura admitted.

Haku arched an eyebrow, but she came to a stop and crouched down. "His footprints disappear here. He probably took to the trees from this point. Finding him just became harder but not impossible."

"I just hope he doesn't get himself hurt." Sakura said.

"So tell me what you mean by 'no longer'?" Haku asked.

"Uh? Oh that? Well... it's a long story."

"I've got time and we're not searching solo. So start talking. What are your thoughts on Naruto?" Haku asked Sakura.

"I'm still not sure what to think about him. He was the dobe of the class, and Mom always said to keep away from him since he's a bad influence." Sakura answered the hyoton user. "Even though he's my teammate, I don't really know that much about Naruto. I don't think _anyone_ in Konoha does except the Hokage and this one girl who has a crush on him. He has no family and so few friends, and to be honest up until yesterday I never really wanted to be his friend."

"Why not? What's so bad about him?" Haku asked curiously.

By force of habit Sakura came very close to getting into an anti-Naruto tirade, but out of consideration for him and in case he was listening, she took a deep breath and tried to compose her thoughts to be objective rather than judgmental. "I'm not the best person to answer that question. For a long time, I hated the mere fact Naruto even existed. There was even a time where I wished he had died in the Kyuubi attack on Konoha twelve years ago."

Haku's eyes widened then narrowed bitterly. "But he himself is only twelve. He would have been a baby at that time or still in the womb. You hate him so much you'd wish death on him when he was a baby?" She saw Sakura hang her head with a tear running down her cheek. "I really want to slap you and call you a bitch right now for that, but I will give you this one chance to change my mind. But keep in mind I speak from experience that being born different is not a crime."

Sakura looked back at the hyoton wielder, eyes still wet and full of regret. "I have no excuse for my old ways. I _was_ a bitch. I just didn't know it until yesterday when Naruto opened my eyes. I... I used to hit him all the time for any reason and I insulted him left and right."

"Why?" Haku asked, hostility still in her voice. Not because of any affection to Naruto, but because she couldn't stand the idea of someone being victimized undeservingly. And until she had reason to believe otherwise, she was not going to just assume Naruto deserved to suffer. She was not her father.

"Part of it was because he did annoy me, and I wasn't interested in being more than friends like he was." Sakura added.

Haku scoffed. "Sounds more like you weren't interested in being friends in any sense of the word."

"True, I didn't. I mean, I didn't intend to be so bad to Naruto. I just didn't care about him at all."

Haku frowned. "No, that's not true. If you truly didn't care about him you wouldn't let him get to you. You would ignore him, avoid him, or at least ask him to leave you alone."

"I did ask him." Sakura countered.

"Did you?" Haku inquired, sounding like she didn't believe the pinkette. "Did you really ask, or did you just tell him?"

"What's the difference?" Sakura asked.

"Let's say the boy you like kindly requested you to not bother him. Would you do it?" Haku asked. Sakura slowly nodded. "And if he just looked at you and said 'Get lost', would you do that so easily?" Haku added.

Sakura looked down again. She knew from experience what her answer was. Sasuke had already done just that, but did she heed his words? Obviously not. Sasuke had ignored her left and right and on occasion told her directly to not be around him, but she left him alone no more than Naruto left her alone.

"No, I didn't. So I guess I have no right to criticize Naruto for doing the same thing I myself have done."

"Oh well, we really shouldn't keep standing here when we should be looking for him. But before we go, just tell me three things about him you like." Haku told her.

This one simple request would forever affect Sakura in ways she couldn't possibly predict right then and there. At that moment, all the pinkette wanted was to not walk away the bad guy and have this girl who was clearly stronger than her have a legitimate reason to hurt her. Haku clearly wanted to be friends with Naruto, and anyone who came across as his enemy would likely earn her discord.

"He's caring enough to not hold grudges, though I don't understand why. He's never boring to be around, even if he is annoying. And..." Now Sakura looked and sounded like she was struggling. "I know I can trust him."

Haku took this in, looking at Sakura in a way that made the younger kunoichi felt she was being evaluated for her answers. "Fine, thank you. Now let's go find him and you can see for yourself what else you think you know about him."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, but Haku already got into the trees, requiring Sakura to follow the former Kiri resident and repeat the question.

"It sounds to me like you don't really know Naruto as well as you thought you do. The fact you struggled to give me three examples of his qualities and two of them came with commentary tells me you don't know him even if you know of him. Maybe you should spend more time trying to know him as a person instead of as just a teammate."

After that Sakura said nothing, but Haku's words had quite an effect on her. 'Naruto, do I even know you at all?'

* * *

Hours went by and neither kunoichi could find the whiskered blonde. They checked the woods, they checked the town, they even checked the shore, still nothing. It was as if Naruto vanished off the face of Wave Country.

'How can Naruto hide so well?' Sakura asked herself. 'I mean, it should not be this hard to find a blonde boy wearing an orange jacket.'

The pinkette and her brunette partner had to stop and sit on a bench for a moment. Haku wheezed. "I'll give him this, he's the best hider I've ever encountered. Forget that Where's Waldo guy, he couldn't hold a candle to Naruto."

"It's amazing. I mean, Naruto always wanted to be noticed back in Konoha and in the academy. I don't remember him ever being unnoticeable on purpose. It ever occurred to me that he might be good at hiding when he put his mind to it."

"But what could set him off so badly he'd want to be this alone?" Haku asked.

"It had to be those women Kakashi-sensei was facing in the house. Somehow they did something that really hurt Naruto."

"I take it you don't know who they are."

Sakura shook her head. "Never seen them before."

"You don't have to wonder much longer." A woman told them, and both girls were surprised to see the two aforementioned women before them, with Kakashi alongside them.

"Kakashi-sensei, do you know who they are?" Sakura asked.

The masked jounin nodded. "Yes. It took some convincing," 'And a good use of Kushina's chakra chains tying me up.' He added silently to himself, "But I know who she really is. This is Kushina Uzumaki, my sensei's wife, and Naruto's mother."

"Mother?" Sakura and Haku asked.

"I know you both have a ton of questions for me and I will get to them when I can, but for now my top priority is finding my son. Your questions will be answered after that and no sooner."

Both girls looked a bit stubborn, but they nodded. "Thing is we have no idea and we've checked everywhere we can."

"Then obviously he'd hiding somewhere you can't check." The blonde woman next to Kushina answered. "Name's Freya by the way, no relation to Naruto but Kushina's a good friend of mine. And if Naruto is what we think he is then that's something I _must_ see for myself."

"What do you think he is?" Kakashi asked.

"Does it have something to do with that white armor of his?" Sakura asked.

"We'll answer everything when we find him. I dislike having to repeat myself." Freya told them.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Haku asked, cleaning her ear for a moment.

"I said I dislike having to..." Freya started, but stopped when she saw Haku's playful grin. "Nice try girl. Most people wouldn't try that with me."

"Haku-san, I suggest you not bother this nice lady here. She's... above your level." Kakashi told the hyoton user.

Haku was smart enough to not press the issue, so instead she asked a different question. "How do you plan to find him when we can't?"

"The way way he found him here. We trace his power." Freya answered.

"Like a sensor?" Sakura asked.

"Sort of. My son's power has a specific feel to it so in a chakra sense he stands out like a sore thumb with an infection on a giant hand. That's how we find him." Kushina told her.

Freya closed her eyes and it looked like a light wind was blowing around her, but no one felt any themselves. Then the wind faded and she opened her eyes. "I found him."

"Where is he?" Sakura and Haku immediately asked, standing right up quite quickly.

"In one of the only places two teenage girls would never think to look for someone. A cemetery."

"A cemetery?" Sakura repeated. "Why would he be in a cemetery?"

"Who goes to a grave looking for a living person?" Haku commented, seeing the reasoning.

"Well what are we doing still here? Let's go already." Kushina said impatiently.

Kakashi chuckled. "Nice to see that hasn't changed about you."

* * *

Within ten minutes the group found their way to the nearest cemetery, some graves clearly fresher than others. And on more than two dozen graves there were white poppies among other mementos that probably had more personal meanings to the deceased.

"These must be all the people Gato was responsible for the deaths of." Haku said, looking over the graves.

"There he is." Sakura told everyone, pointing to a tree in the middle of the graveyard. Sure enough, up in the branches there was Naruto, and he looked peacefully asleep.

"Let's get him him down but without waking him." Kakashi said. "I'll do it since he might not respond positively if he does wake up and I may be the one least likely to aggravate him further."

Kushina looked sad but nodded, and Kakashi slowly climbed the tree and picked up her resting son. 'My baby boy, even if the Allfather forbids it, I will never leave you again. I will be for you what I couldn't be before, and help you become what you are meant to be.'

Freya looked at the redhead and with difficulty held her tongue. 'I know what you're thinking Kushina, but I'm afraid it won't be as easy as you using your parental rights. This boy has something no mortal was ever meant to have, especially a male, and I'm no convinced he should have it. Friend or not, if I decide your son is unworthy of the valkyrie power, I will kill him myself and send him to Niflheim. You too if you get in my way, my subordinate.'


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

Naruto woke up close to midnight, not aware he had been returned to Tazuna's house. The first thing he noticed was that he was laying on something soft, not the branch of a tree, and he felt no form of breeze. Remaining silent, he let his eyes adjust to the darkness and saw he was back into the house of the bridge builder.

"How did I get back here?" He quietly asked.

All of a sudden there was a click sound and a lamp had been turned on. Naruto turned that way by reflex and let his eyes readjust to the light. When he could see, he saw Kakashi sitting in a chair right next to the lamp and the desk it was on.

"Glad to see you didn't wait until daylight to wake up." The jounin told his student.

"Did you bring me back Sensei?"

"Technically, no. But I was there when you were brought back."

"Then... who did it?" Naruto asked, not understanding the phrasing.

"Naruto, I have something to tell you, but first I need you to promise me two things." Kakashi said, ignoring the question.

"Like what?"

"First, promise me no yelling. There are people here trying to sleep and it wouldn't be very nice to disrupt that. Second, please answer any and all questions I have to give you first, since there apparently are things I need to learn from you as well."

Naruto blinked in confusion. "You need me to teach you something?"

"No, just inform me of a situation I have no knowledge of. I want to help you, but to do that I need to know what got under your skin and why. Can you promise me this?"

Naruto frowned. "What's there to say? That woman-"

"Naruto, can you promise me the things I requested?" Kakashi pressed.

The whiskered blonde looked very hesitant. "Fine, I'll shut up and answer your damn questions."

'This subject really hit a sore spot with him.' Kakashi thought. "Naruto, I only really have one question for you. Why did you act the way you did this morning?"

Naruto frowned deeply, much deeper than any time he had been overlooked in favor of Sasuke which were the only times most people had ever seen him frown. "How the hell was I _supposed_ to react? A strange woman shows up pretending to be my mother and I'm not allowed to be pissed off? Yeah right."

"How do you know she's pretending?" Kakashi asked.

"Of course she is Kakashi-sensei. My mother is fucking dead! And even if she was somehow still alive she obviously hates me and wants not a damn thing to do with me!"

"And how do you know that?" Kakashi asked again.

"Don't give me that Kakashi-sensei. It's been twelve years. Twelve years!" Naruto stressed, coming very close to screaming despite his promise. "If I mattered to her even a little she would have given me some kind of sign about it. Twelve years and I got jack squat. If my mother isn't dead, she might as well be dead as far as I'm concerned."

He stopped for a moment to stop himself from exploding, and Kakashi said nothing for a time. "Naruto, I apologize if it sounded like I was undermining you. To tell you the truth, I can understand exactly why you'd come to that conclusion. It's not uncommon among orphans. But you've never been the type to get this angry so seeing this behavior in you is quite unexpected. It almost sounds like something similar to this has happened to you before. Did it?"

Naruto looked away. "I've spent years trying to forget that. Don't make me talk about it."

"Naruto, take it from me, after something terrible happens you can't pretend it didn't. You can mourn it, you can compensate for it, you can try to ensure it never happens again, but you cannot let yourself forget about it. If you do, then what's to prevent it from happening again?"

"It _is_ happening again." Naruto argued, making the jounin more suspicious and curious, and dreadful of what he wasn't hearing.

"Naruto, did someone once pretend to be your parent in order to hurt you?" Kakashi asked carefully. 'I know there are people that love to hurt him, but would any of them go that far to make him miserable?'

"It certainly wasn't to help me." The blonde genin snorted, then sighed when he realized the jounin was not going to drop this tonight. "It happened back when I lived in the orphanage. A woman with purple hair came to me smiling and said she was going to give me a home. She said she had found my real family and was going to take me to them. I was very confused, since no one who came by the orphanage even looked at me without glaring and the ones working there made it clear no one ever would do anything else."

"They did that?" Kakashi asked, hoping Naruto was exaggerating or speaking in anger. What kind of person running an orphanage actually tells a child they cannot be loved.

"They said it worse than I just did, but yes. So even though I was confused by the offer, I was glad to be able to get away from that hellhole." He then sighed and still refused to make eye contact. "Until that night."

"What happened?" Kakashi carefully asked, sounding like a cop interrogating a child in a case.

"I must have blacked out, because I don't remember most of that night. But I remember the woman taking me to a building saying she was going to introduce me to my family. I saw a man she called her husband and a purple-haired girl my age she called her daughter, and then... she kicked me right in the nose."

There was a gasp heard, and Naruto turned his head left and right. "Who did that?"

"That was me Naruto. You just couldn't see it because of my mask, that and the fact you weren't looking at me. Now do you know why she would do that?"

Naruto shrugged. "Probably for the same reason everyone else who's tried to kill me does it. Damn furball."

"Did she or the others say anything?" Kakashi continued.

"I'm not sure. I was hit pretty hard by that kick and don't remember anything for the rest of that day. But I think the girl was screaming."

"Do you know who any of them were?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, but I was asked not to tell anyone. The girl... she doesn't like remembering that day either."

"Do you still see her?"

Naruto nodded. "On occasion, but we never talk about that day. The fewer people who know about it the better, just like the Kyuubi, right Sensei?"

Kakashi stiffened as if nervous. "Naruto, you shouldn't talk about such things even if you're sure no one else is listening."

"Why not Kakashi-sensei? You're the only one here." Naruto asked.

"Even if I am, you should make it a habit Naruto for future times. Ninja can have ears anywhere, so it's best not to give them something that shouldn't be heard."

Naruto sighed. "Like anyone cares what I say anyway."

"You don't really believe that do you Naruto?" Kakashi asked, hoping his student was still venting.

Naruto frowned. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't."

"Well I think Sakura's warming up to you now."

Naruto scoffed. "Until Sasuke gets back on his feet. Then I'll just be an afterthought again. I'm glad she's being nice now, but I know it's just temporary. She left her best friend to devote her attention to Sasuke, her _best friend_. So why wouldn't she do the exact same thing to me?"

"What about Haku?"

"If she goes to Konoha with us she won't want anything to do with me. Sooner or later she'll talk to someone who will tell her everything they say when they think I'm not listening and more people will tell her the same. Why would she believe me over the entire population? Would _you_?"

Kakashi did not know how to answer that, so instead he continued his questioning. "What about the Hokage? Surely you don't think he doesn't care about you."

"Sometimes I wonder." Naruto quietly answered.

"You can't be serious Naruto." The jounin told him.

"Why not? Think about it Sensei. Before I was even a day old he let the entire village know the Kyuubi was sealed inside me by the Yondaime. Twelve years later and over half the population is still convinced I'm a monster. Twelve years. What has he been doing to show them they're wrong and I'm not that damn fox, just the cage? Tell me Kakashi-sensei, why did he let everyone know about me and the kyuubi? And what exactly has he been doing over the past twelve years to prove them wrong about me?"

Kakashi sat rigid in his seat, as if nervous about something, then sighed and relaxed. "Naruto, I'm not the one you should be asking that. Now, given the fact that you've had a stressful couple of days here I'm not going to reprimand you for the things you're saying, which some people might take as slander against your team and hokage."

"Only because _I'm_ the one saying it." Naruto muttered.

"Well what did I tell you about being careful about what you say even if no one's listening?" Kakashi asked. "Anyway, I'm going to consider this talk as some much needed venting of frustration and hope that by tomorrow you'll be back to normal. I recommend you either get some sleep or go outside and do some training if you're feeling a bit restless." Naruto nodded and stood up. "But before you go, I have one thing to tell you. That woman that came by today claiming to be your mother-"

"Not now Kakashi-sensei. Anything but that." The whiskered blonde told the cycloptic jounin, fists trembling at his side.

Kakashi slowly nodded. "Alright then, I'll save it for tomorrow. Go do what you've got to do to calm yourself down. Just keep it quiet."

Naruto nodded and went outside. Once he was out, he just ran off out of sight.

Kakashi sighed and turned on the lights in the room, revealing Sakura, Haku, and Kushina in the former darkness. "That could have gone better."

"Kakashi-sensei, what did he mean by that stuff with the Kyuubi?" Sakura asked, already having a good idea what he meant from what she heard, but she was hoping, no praying, that she was wrong.

"Sakura, what I'm about to tell you is absolute confidential. No one is allowed to say a word about it ever except for Naruto or the Hokage, under penalty of death. Haku-san, while I may not have jurisdiction over you, if I suspect you use this knowledge against Naruto I'll kill you myself."

The two girls nodded, too curious to object.

"The Kyuubi attacked Konoha twelve years ago and the Yondaime vanquished it. That part of the story is true. However, it's not the complete story. The Kyuubi was the most powerful demon known to man; does it make sense that one man alone could defeat it?"

Sakura was momentarily silent. "I never thought about that before. But you said he did do it."

"He did, but you were never told how. Using a very powerful fuinjutsu, he stripped the kyuubi of it's chakra and spirit to render it powerless, but all that had to go somewhere. The only place he could put it was in a seal he placed on Naruto's stomach. Naruto became the prison of the Kyuubi in the process, but to this day four out of five people that know this fact think of Naruto as the fox itself in human form or under the fox's control. They are wrong, but they will refuse to see it any other way until Naruto somehow proves them wrong."

Sakura was stunned. "Naruto had that done to him before he was even a day old? Was there really no better way?"

"I've spent every day since then wishing there was, but our options were limited." Kushina said sadly, gaining their attention. "I was there that day. I can tell you all that happened if you promise not to tell others." The girls nodded, and Kushina proceeded to tell them all the events of Naruto's birth.

She held nothing back. The masked man, her own jinchuuriki status, the actions of Minato and herself, her final words to her son, everything.

"Wait, does that mean Naruto's father is the Yondaime?" Sakura asked.

Kushina nodded. "Yes he is. Next time you see my husband you show try to see the resemblance."

"But why would you do such a thing to your own son?" Sakura asked.

Kushina frowned. "It wasn't like I wanted to. We planned to reseal Kyuubi inside myself, but the battle took a turn for the worst and neither of us were going to survive. At that point, the only thing we could do was seal him inside Naruto, since only an Uzumaki could successfully handle the burden and use of Kyuubi's chakra. Anyone else would have suffered irreparable damage to their chakra systems at best. Hate me if you must, but we were out of options."

"Wait, you said neither of you were going to survive. So how did you?" Haku asked, noticing a hole in her story.

Kushina stopped frowning and now looked forlorn. "I didn't."

"But you had to, otherwise you wouldn't be here right now." Haku countered.

Kushina shook her head. "I didn't. I died."

"Then... you were somehow resuscitated?"

"No."

"Then what are you? Some kind of ghost?" Haku asked, not understanding her.

"You could say that."

Hakua and Sakura had wide eyes, and on impulse Haku grabbed Kushina's outfit, feeling solid material. "You're no ghost. You're solid."

"I'm not a true ghost, but I'm not alive. I'm a valkyrie, a dead warrior spirit that serves the gods for when they need to go to war."

"I've never heard of such things." Haku stated.

"You'll find the truth about the world and the afterlife is barely what you've been led to believe it is."

"Wait, you're dead right?" Sakura asked, and Kushina nodded. "But apparently you can come back here, so why wait until right now to do so? Couldn't you have done it sooner when Naruto was younger and needed it more?"

"Don't you think I would have done that if I could?" Kushina asked, lightly frowning again. "The dead are not meant to come and go as they please. The only reason I'm here now is because my son did something very unexpected and the Allfather wanted me and Freya to come here and inspect it."

"Then what? You'll get your answers then go away? Do you care about your son at all?"

Kushina right away grabbed Sakura's collar and lifted her up. "Don't you DARE tell me I don't care about my son! I sacrificed my life so he could live, and apparently the rest of the village have taken that sacrifice for granted. And from what I heard, so have you. I'm not going to let a little girl who only likes my son when no one else is around talk to me like she has a moral high ground."

Before Naruto woke up, Kakashi managed to inform Kushina of what happened to Naruto after her death. Even though it was an abridged yet honest version, it infuriated Kushina to know that the village her husband led and died for had so little respect for him that most of them barely gave his dying wish consideration. Kushina threatened to unleash Ragnarok on Konoha, and even though Kakashi didn't know what that meant, he didn't like the implication. Right now it appeared that the single biggest thing keeping Kushina from causing bloodshed was the fact Naruto was here and Konoha wasn't, but once that changed even the former Anbu couldn't guarantee what she might do.

Kushina wasn't called red-hot for nothing.

Seeing the pinkette was scared, the Uzumaki matriarch let her go. "All I want to do is help my son and be what I wasn't allowed to be, there for him. I need to be his mother and his teacher, but I need to get him to listen to me first. If any of you care about him at all, you'll help me do that."

"Any ideas?" Kakashi asked. "We have to address that carefully. Naruto's a fragile person when he's angry."

"What do you mean Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked.

"Sakura, you've only seen Naruto's mask. You've never seen Naruto when he was at one of his low points. You see him act happy and carefree and you assume he's just being immature or stupid. The fact is he _has_ to act that way because it's the only way to keep him from thinking about his misfortune. If he dwells on the fact that he has no parents, no friends, none of the things that make you smile, he'd try to kill himself. In fact, I've seen him try."

"What?" The three women asked him.

Kakashi nodded. "I once caught him drinking a bottle of bleach, and not by accident. I got to him and managed to induce vomiting and still struggled to pump his stomach. He was passed out, and I ended up taking him to the hospital. From what I heard, his first words upon regaining consciousness were 'why won't I die?'"

Sakura, Haku, and Kushina gasped, and all three shed a tear for him, Kushina crying the most.

"Naruto's not like Sasuke Sakura. He doesn't sulk in his pain; he ignores it because when he does sulk _that_ is what he does. He looks for a way to just end it. Or at least he did. He's tried other ways to kill himself but none worked. The only way he hasn't tried is letting people in Konoha kill him themselves and that's because he won't give them that satisfaction. Nothing he's done has worked, like the Kyuubi won't let him die. So Naruto is basically forced to live thru a nightmare. He smiles and acts like nothing's wrong because it's the only way to make his life tolerable. Can you imagine living a life where every day people tell you they wish you were dead? And so few people tell you they're happy to see you? Odds are even you'd consider killing yourself too."

"I know that feeling." Haku mentioned.

Sakura looked between Haku and Kakashi and even glanced at Kushina for a moment, during which she didn't say a word. Then suddenly, she ran out of the room and into the nearest bathroom.

"What's wrong with her?" Haku asked.

Kakashi could hear the sound of retching. "I think she understands the gravity of the situation."

* * *

Naruto was back in the clearing where he first met Haku, there only because it was the only place he could think to go right now. At the moment he was fighting with his clones in what couldn't at all be considered a spar. A more accurate description was just beating the crap out of someone.

Naruto was just so angry and emotional he had to get it out of his system. He was good at suppressing his negative emotions but this was one of those times where he just couldn't anymore and had to vent. With nothing else to vent on, he created a bunch of clones and they all proceeded to just hit each other senseless. Physical pain was better to experience than emotional pain since it faded quicker in his eyes.

After two minutes, all clones were gone and Naruto was on the ground panting and sore, and still angry. So he created more clones and started it all over again. This time it only lasted one minute and Naruto was starting to bleed, but he still wasn't satisfied.

"I like a battle as much as the next Vanir, but this is just self-abuse." Freya noted as she stepped out of the foliage. Kushina requested she wait outside Tazuna's house and observe Naruto if the boy left the house for any reason.

Naruto saw her and was in no mood for interacting with anyone right now. "Get lost!"

"My my my, few men have the balls to talk to me like that. I like you boy, but I need to see what you can do. Want me to tell you what you really are?"

"I know what I am. An unwanted, unloved, nobody."

"You've got self-worth issues. I'm going to have to work on that. Not good to have a valkyrie that hates themselves."

"A what?" Naruto asked, not understanding her.

"That's what you are, son of Kushina Uzumaki. You are a valkyrie. A living and male valkyrie too, something that until yesterday never existed. But if you cooperate and listen to me, you could become quite possibly the most powerful mortal in the realm of Midgard."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

"You could become quite possibly the most powerful mortal in the realm of Midgard."

Freya smiled after saying that, waiting to see his reaction.

"Why would I want that?"

"Huh?" Freya asked, genuinely confused by that question. "Why wouldn't you?"

"All I want is enough power to protect myself and those I care about. That way my enemies can no longer get to me or those close to me. Why would I need more than that?" Naruto clarified.

"Well, if you're the strongest then you won't have to be afraid of losing when you can't risk it." Freya explained.

"And how would I know if I was the strongest?" Naruto asked.

"To be honest, you never truly know. You just keep on going and have the strength to back up your claims. But if you can keep doing it without fail, then you can say you're the strongest."

Naruto looked a bit settled. "That there sounds more my style, but I'm much more interested in what you have to say about what I did today. What was it again?"

"You my boy are the most unusual thing I've ever seen, a living male valkyrie."

"A what?"

"A valkyrie, a soldier of the gods who fights on the front line and as part of the first wave in times of war for the divine. Valkyries are very powerful and well trained, and capable of much. A single valkyrie is a force to be reckoned with, but a platoon of them is an unstoppable force AND an unmovable object, depending on the role it performs."

"Wow." was all the blonde could say.

"However, all valkyries have two things in common. The first is that they are spirits of the dead who are deemed suitable for the god's purposes. And second, they are _always_ women. You on the other hand are alive and a man. Such a thing is supposed to be impossible, and yet here you are."

"You sure it's impossible?"

Freya nodded. "Yes boy, this is not supposed to happen. I would know better than most, since I'm one of those in charge of the valkyrie army."

"What?" Naruto asked.

Freya nodded again, this time with a smile. "Allow me to properly introduce myself. I am Freya, Goddess of Warfare, Nature, Love, and more."

"A goddess?"

Freya nodded. "One of many, but I'm one of the highest in rank. I came here because your little power display caught a lot of attention back home, and I had to see for myself what kind of person could invoke this power that should be off-limits to those like you."

"You gonna kill me for being something I had no say in?" Naruto asked, getting defensive thanks to years to persecution.

"If I believe you intend to misuse this power, then yes. But for now, I'm much more interested in seeing if you can use this for the right reasons."Freya told him. "Besides, your mother would be very cross if I were to kill you so quickly and simply."

Naruto's flinch was quite obvious. "There's no way that woman can be my mother."

"How do you know? Have you ever seen your mother?"

"No."

"Do you even know her name?"

"No."

"Then how can you be so completely certain she is not your mother?" Freya asked.

"She just can't be." Naruto stated firmly.

Freya rolled her eyes. "Oh, terrific reason. How stupid of me to not think of that."

"Wow, goddesses can be sarcastic." Naruto sarcastically replied.

Freya then got serious. "Kid, the fact is you _don't_ know. You _can't_ know. You're just telling yourself this because you're afraid of the implications if what I say is true."

"I am not afraid." Naruto challenged.

"Yes you are." The blonde woman countered. "You're afraid of what her appearance means. You're afraid that she just abandoned you and is only now appearing for a reason that isn't good for you at all. You want to know why she left you, but you're afraid of what her answer might be so you're refusing to give her a chance to say it."

Naruto just frowned. "I'm angry, not afraid."

The goddess shook her head. "No, you're angry _because_ you're afraid. It's a preemptive emotional strike. Attack before you get attacked. As a goddess of love and war I know this behavior very well."

"I'm finding your goddess claim a bit hard to believe. If you truly are one, prove it."

"Are you truly sure you would want to see? Gods and goddesses have so much more power then mere mortals. Seeing it displayed can hurt a weak mortal." Freya said as Naruto looked more curious.

"I said prove it, or are you a sham?" The genin said with ferocity. Freya smiled at this, as this is what she preferred with a soldier.

"You certainly are gutsy for a mortal. Very well, I shall prove it, but only with a small show of my power. Too much might destabilize the entire region." She answered. Suddenly the trees around them both moved on their own, emerging from the ground walking on their roots. Before he could react, their branches quickly bound Naruto, keeping him immobile. All the while she never moved and her hands were too far apart to use any form of jutsu.

"What do you think of that?" Freya asked, smirking, pleased with herself.

"Makes me think you're related to the Shodai Hokage, not a goddess." Naruto retorted. Naruto may not have been an expert on many things, but he was quite informed of the past hokages. He learned so he'd know how best to do the job when he got it.

"Wow, mortals are getting harder to impress. In the old days all we had to do is create a little thunder and lightning and your kind was willing to sacrifice animals to us. But if you need more, I can show you more."

All of a sudden, grey cats appeared in what looked like air itself glowing and shimmering, as if some mirrored ball was right where the cats actually were. And these were no ordinary cats, there were the size of mountain lions and if it weren't for their domestic appearance Naruto would swear they were just that. At the same time, Freya herself shimmered in a light and her clothes slowly transformed as she still wore them. Her blue tunic dress turned into golden metal armor with arm guards, all sculpted to fit a woman's body and make her look tough, with blue mesh armor covering what the gold armor didn't. What stood out the most was clearly her necklace, which looked like it had jewels made of crystallized fire.

"Now are you convinced?"

Naruto thought for a moment before responding. "For now I guess I'll believe you."

"Good, now, I want you to listen to me. If you don't, my little pets here will make you."

Naruto felt the safe thing to do here was remain silent, which he could do if he wanted to believe it or not. Freya sensed this and continued.

"Now, I come from what you might call Heaven. We call it Asgard. Anyway, some dead mortals are selected to go to Asgard instead of the Underworld. Not just any mortal gets this though, no, we choose honorable warriors that impress us with their skills and principles. Men go to Valhalla, but women go to Sessrumnir, where I rule. In short, I'm the goddess in charge of an entire army of women warriors which are called the Valkyrie."

"Wow." Naruto said, a bit impressed.

"Thank you. Now, I tell you this for two reasons. I already told you the first, because you are somehow gifted with valkyrie power. The second, is because Sessrumnir is where your mother has been since your birth. I'm sorry, but your mother did in fact die the day you were born. She at least died bravely in battle and was quite a valiant warrior in life so I granted her admittance into the valkyrie forces. She couldn't be there for you in the past because she couldn't leave Asgard, but she is here right now for you."

Naruto looked away, trying not to look hurt. "Why should I believe you?" He sounded sad, not angry.

"The real question is why shouldn't you?" Freya asked back. "Kid, you have no way to really prove me wrong, and I don't really have much to gain by lying to you. But whether you believe me or not, the fact is I and my companion are the only two beings in this realm that can teach you about your powers. So I suggest you put your martyrdom aside and listen so you don't become a real martyr."

"If you really know my mother, just answer one question." Naruto responded, his eyes covered by a shadow making him look quite forlorn.

"Shoot."

"Did she love me?"

"Why don't you ask her that yourself?" Kushina quietly asked as she emerged from behind Naruto and the trees still binding him in place.

Naruto's first reaction might have been to ignore her at best or verbally attack her at worst, if Freya hadn't made him think first. Now he was starting to wonder... could this woman really be his mother?

Kushina looked at her son, eyes brimming with tears. "Naruto, you have no idea how sad I am for what happened to you, and how glad I am to have this chance to see you again. You look so much like your father. Would you like to see him?"

"My father? Is he... dead too?"

Kushina sadly nodded. "I can bring him here for you to see for a bit."

"Kushina, that might not be the best idea." Freya warned.

Kushina shook her head. "Consider it a demonstration of one of his powers, and besides, you know a better person to summon?"

Freya closed her eyes but didn't look unhappy. "Do as you wish."

Kushina nodded and smiled. "Come to me my Einherjar. Minato rise to battle!" Her hands glowed white then she clapped them together without separating them. A sudden small gust of wind was felt and to Kushina's right the image of a man shimmered into existence like something invisible slowly being focused into visibility. When it could be seen, Naruto saw a tall man with spiky blonde hair wearing a red shirt, black pants, and a yellow jacket that looked like it was a cloak as well.

It was a man Naruto recognized right away, even if he had never actually met the man in person (as far as he knew). "N-no way! No freaking way!"

"Naruto? Is that you?"

The aforementioned blonde's eyes shifted between the man and woman in front of him. "You're trying to tell me... the Yondaime Hokage... is MY father?"

"You were never told?" Minato asked.

Kushina turned to her husband. "From what Kakashi told me, the _best_ thing he's ever been told about us was that we weren't gutter trash, but virtually the entire city wants him to think otherwise."

"What?" Minato asked.

Naruto clenched his eyes shut. "This can't be true. You're lying to me. There's no possible way the Yondaime could be my father."

"Naruto-"

"Shut up! I don't know why you're doing this, but there's no fucking way this is true! Stop-" Naruto shouted, but was cut off when a tree limb moved to cover his mouth. He could still breath, but any talking was now muffled.

"Boy, I suggest you listen for once. I know you're afraid, but it you give them a chance you might find out something important." Freya told him.

Kushina and Minato looked hurt for their son but didn't free him from this entrapment. "Son, I know people have said some nasty things about you and your origins. I can promise you that they are dead wrong. We are your parents and we love you. We've never stopped, even in death." Kushina told him.

"All those people that told you we hated you or were human garbage, how many of them bothered to tell you anything good? How many of them were the kind who hated you and wanted you to hate yourself? Why would you believe them on this?" She added.

"Probably because it was the only thing he was told." Freya commented. "Anyone would believe a lie if they were never told anything else."

"Naruto, we are telling you the truth. You are our son." Minato stated. "I have no idea why my sensei hasn't told you, and I'm infuriated the village is disrespecting you like they have, but they are wrong."

"Naruto, let me tell you exactly why we haven't been around for you." Kushina started. "You see, you're actually not the first person to contain the Kyuubi." His eyes widened but she didn't stop. "The first was Mito Uzumaki, the wife of the Shodai Hokage, who came from my birthplace Uzushiogakure, a hidden village that was destroyed by invasion when I was still a young girl. I was brought to Konoha and enrolled in the Academy, but first... I was selected by Mito-sama to be her successor. So I became the second jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi."

She paused to see her son's reaction. She saw he was shocked and focused just on her, so she continued. "I grew up in Konoha keeping that secret and over time your father and I fell in love and got married, though it wasn't a well-known fact since Minato had many enemies and we didn't want to announce it during a time he was highly likely to be given threats or sent assassins. It would have been manageable for us since we were both capable of defending ourselves from such threats, but... I was pregnant with you so that made us worry."

"A pregnant kunoichi is just as vulnerable as any other pregnant woman Son, and you were even more vulnerable." Minato noted. "If she got in any major fights at that time, you might have died from a miscarriage, direct attack, or overexposure to Kyuubi's chakra if she was pushed too far. If people knew I was the father of her unborn child, you might not have been born."

"So we had to keep that a secret, but we planned of making our marriage and your heritage known after you were born and the threat was reduced." Kushina told her son. "Unfortunately, we didn't live to do so. Y'see, a jinchuuriki's seal is weakest at birth, so there already was a high risk of Kyuubi escaping me when you were born. We might of been able to keep it under control, except one person decided to make things worse."

Minato frowned. "A masked man claiming to be Madara Uchiha found us and attacked. His interference with the defenses we set up allowed Kyuubi to escape, but you and your mother were unharmed. He then managed to briefly take control of Kyuubi and set it on the village. As Hokage I had to defend the village so I led our ninja against the fox, hoping to reseal it inside Kushina. The masked man managed to take you from her and intended to use you as leverage over us."

"Exactly what we feared during my pregnancy." Kushina added regretfully, blaming herself for her enemy in getting near her son at the time.

"We had to fight him off, save you, and subdue the Kyuubi all at the same time. It was almost impossible, but somehow we managed to pull it off. The only problem was Kushina was too wounded to handle the resealing, so we... were forced to seal Kyuubi inside you instead. For some reason, only those of Uzumaki blood can safely handle the containment of Kyuubi's chakra. Maybe it's part of their kekkei genkai. For all I know, maybe all jinchuuriki are somehow connected to the Uzumaki, but I wouldn't guarantee that." Minato continued.

"Anyway, Kyuubi saw what he planned and tried to kill you." Kushina interjected. "We reacted at the same time; we both took the hit for you, a lethal hit but we were shielding you and holding Kyuubi in place just long enough to reseal him. We knew we wouldn't survive and we were sad to die, but we were placated by the fact you would live and hopefully be happy and seen as a hero. We left specific instructions regarding your care and education, but from what Kakashi tells me, someone decided to do things their own way instead."

"So that's it Naruto." Minato told him. "We died, but we did everything we could to ensure you were born safely and got to live. Does that sound like something to be angry about?"

Freya decided now was a good time to let the young blonde speak, and so she freed him from the trees and let them root themselves back in their proper places. Her cats stayed though.

Naruto just stood here, taking a brief moment to reestablish his footing since he had been held up for the past few minutes. After that he just stared at his parents, not sure what to say to them. They themselves were silently awaiting his reaction, hoping he would now accept them.

After a moment, Naruto just hung his head. "Why now? Why is it only now that you show up? Couldn't you have done it sooner, even before I did that valkyrie thing?"

Kushina knelt before him and gingerly placed her hand on his cheek. She was glad that he didn't reject the touch. "Son, you must understand, we're dead. Both of us. We can't come and go as we please. We needed permission from the gods to come here, and your power usage was the only thing that made them give us that permission. I wish we could have come sooner, but the gods won't let just anyone go for just any reason. Not even to see our orphaned child is a good enough reason for them."

"So you'll have to go back soon?" He asked, ready to cry.

Kushina already was crying. "I'm afraid so Naruto. I'm here to help you get a grip on your power and make sure you learn how and why to use it properly, but I can't stay forever."

"At best, you'll be given visits from her for one day per month, mostly to evaluate your skills and progress. And since your father is her Einherjar, you don't have to worry about him never showing up either." Freya told him. "For now though, Kushina can be with you for one week to get you started. After that week ends, it will be thirty days before she will return to see you. No sooner."

"One day a month? That's it?" Naruto asked.

"I think I know a way to make it easier." Kushina offered. "Freya, can I share Minato with Naruto?"

The goddess's eyes widened. "Two valkyrie sharing an einherjar? Odd, but I don't think there's actually a rule against it."

"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked.

Kushina smiled. "Naruto, one of the powers of a valkyrie is the ability to summon einherjar, the men who battle in Valhalla. I was sent to Sessrumnir and your father to Valhalla, but as a valkyrie I was given the ability to summon him to my side anytime I need him to fight with me. Or when I need to be with my husband."

"A lot of valkyrie do that when their husbands are einherjar." Freya noted.

"Anyway, since you are empowered with valkyrie abilities, one of them should be the ability to summon a man from Valhalla to fight with you when you need to. However, there's a catch. You can't summon just anyone. You have to have a bond with someone there who is willing to fight beside you. It's not that different than the traditional summoning jutsu, except you summon warriors instead of animals. Minato is my einherjar, and if you want he can be yours as well."

Minato smiled. "This way you can see me anytime you want, unless the gods need me more."

"How do I do that?" Naruto asked. Even if the Yondaime wasn't his father, being able to summon him at any time was bound to be helpful to him, especially when he needed someone to support him back in Konoha.

"Before you do this, let me make one thing clear to him." Freya interrupted, then stepped up to the whiskered blonde. "Naruto, you won't be able to summon him at any and all times. He does have things to do in Asgard after all, like preparing for Ragnarok with the other men in Valhalla. Einherjar are meant to be summoned for assistance, not company. Summoning him for company is okay on occasion, but if you summon him to the point where he's practically never away from you, you could lose your rights to him because of an abuse of the privilege."

"But... but why can't I be with my own father as much as I want if I can?" He asked.

"It doesn't work that way." The goddess simply answered.

Naruto looked mad again. "And what gives you the right to decide that?"

Freya leaned right in his face. "Because I'm a full-fledged goddess in charge of an entire army of divine warriors while you are a mere rookie of a grunt in a mortal army. You may have a chance against a single dwarf or a half-elf, but a goddess like me? You couldn't hurt me even if I let you."

Naruto responded in a way that would make any Uzumaki proud, and maybe horrified.

He headbutted the goddess right in her face with enough force to bust her nose and knock her on her ass.

Kushina gasped in shock while Minato looked horrified. "Naruto what have you done?"

"Looks like I can hurt her after all, and I didn't even need her to let me." He stated before several cats pounced at him. He responded with as many shadow clones that grabbed the cats and punched them in their jaws knocking them out. 'After dealing with Tora that sure felt good.'

Freya sat up, covering her broken bleeding nose. From behind her fingers dripped ichor, golden blood of the deities. She glared at him in a way that even Sasuke couldn't compete with. "Hope you enjoyed seeing your parents brat, because when I'm done with you you'll never see them again!"


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

Both Kushina and Minato wanted to stop this fight before it went any further, but common sense told them they couldn't. Freya was a deity and just got deeply offended by a mortal; her pride demanded she make an example of him. What kind of goddess would she be if she let a human get away with insulting her as he did?

But on the other hand, maternal and paternal feelings were sometimes stronger than loyalty to a deity.

"Lady Freya, please don't do this." Kushina pleaded, stepping between the two.

"Get out of my way Kushina." Freya ordered.

"Be rational about this."

"I wasn't _asking_ you to move Kushina. I'm _telling_ you to move." The goddess stated dropping her hand from her face. Her bleeding had died down now since gods are naturally great healers. The Vanir and Aesir were not invulnerable to injury, which is part of why they learn so much from combat.

"He's my son. You know I can't let you do that. I don't care if you throw me into the Nidhogg's mouth for this, I will not stand by and let you try to kill my son."

Freya did not want to hurt Kushina, but her anger at Naruto wasn't placated. "Fine, I won't kill him. But he needs a lesson in respect. You think anyone else, deity or mortal, would let him get away with this?"

Kushina sadly relented that point. Even a gentle god would have to do something if they were in Freya's place. "Alright Freya, but please, could you at least let him defend himself with his valkyrie power?"

Freya thought about it. "Fine, I'll allow it, but only because I'm interested in seeing this boy use these powers myself." She then made her cats disappear and looked the the blonde who hurt her. "Boy, call forth your aura."

Naruto looked confused. "How do I do that? That one time was sheer accident."

'I'm not surprised it wasn't a conscious move, but if he hasn't been able to recall it since something might be wrong.' Freya thought. She then examined Naruto's spiritual energy, much like some sort of godly byakugan in use, and saw an irregularity in his chakra network.

"Well, this is a bit of a problem." She commented, wiping some dried ichor from her face.

"What?" Naruto, Kushina, and Minato asked.

"You said this kid is a jinchuuriki, meaning he has demonic chakra in him too, not just divine chakra. The two don't work well in the same vessel and sadly for humans demonic chakra is easier to use so his system is initially trying to draw that out instead of the divine chakra. Jinchuuriki do tend to have problems with another sentient being's chakra meshing together with their own in the first place, but this makes it even harder."

"Then how did I use it in the first place?" Naruto asked.

"If I had to guess, I'd say for a moment your access to demonic chakra was blocked. Did you experience anything that could have affected your chakra network itself?"

Naruto closed his eyes and thought it over. "The last thing to happen to me before that strange experience was Haku hitting me with a lot of needles."

"Hmm... her attack just might have hit your chakra network in a way to briefly boast your divine chakra long enough for one use, and now that you're healed you can't recall it as easily." Freya mused. "What a huge feat. Had her aim been even slightly off for just one needle this might never have happened."

"So you're saying I can never do that again?" Naruto asked.

Freya shook her head. "No, but you need an adjustment so you don't have to keep getting hurt to use it. Kushina, you and your husband need to alter this seal. The Kyuubi's energy is interfering with his other powers, and for the Allfather's sake give him a weapon. It's not much of a punishment if he doesn't have something to help him learn from it."

"Yes M'lady." Kushina and Minato bowed. "Naruto, please show us the seal."

He grabbed the bottom of his shirt but didn't lift it. "You guys really want to help me?"

They nodded. "We're your parents. Why wouldn't we want to?"

He came close to tearing up. "You truly swear you mean that?"

Minato knelt down. "Son, if you're finding this hard to believe, summon me next time you see the Hokage. He should tell you the truth, especially with me right there."

Kushina nodded. "Also, summon him next time someone tries to talk trash about us. We'll see how brave Konoha is when he's not on their side."

Naruto wasn't sure what to say, but one thought flashed to him. 'If they're lying it would be easy to prove them wrong back home. Why lie when they can easily be proven wrong? That must mean... they... they are my parents.'

He teared up officially this time. "Mom... Dad..." Without warning he jumped forward. Kushina caught him and embraced him in a tight warm hug, and Minato wrapped his arms around them both.

Freya herself smiled at this. 'This is so heartwarming it could melt a Frost Giant. Damn, now punishing this kid just won't feel right anymore. I can't punish a kid right after he gets his family back, even if he busted my nose. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to go another route.'

As instructed, Naruto lifted his shirt to reveal the seal on his stomach which could only be seen in times of chakra use.

"How do we change it without compromising the original purpose?" Kushina asked.

"We don't." Minato told her. "We just include a second function. Like how I incorporated the Hiraishin seal into your own."

"That could work. But how to design it?"

"What if we replicate the part where it allows him to drawn out Kyuubi's chakra and use it for himself? We just adjust it for lighter chakra."

Kushina nodded. "I can see that working. I'll get some supplies." Instead of standing, she held her hands apart and a white light appeared between them. The light lasted only a moment, and when it ended Kushina now had an ink brush and container in her hands, which she handed to her husband. "Here you go."

"Wha... what did you just do there?" Naruto asked. 'I know ninja can seal objects away, but she didn't even touch a seal for that. It's like she made it appear out of thin air.'

"That's one of the powers of a valkyrie. Materialization. It's a lot like an alchemic transmutation, but instead of creating something from materials at hand, I summon them thru a space-time vortex to me from another location."

"Huh?"

Kushina rethought how to explain it. "I used a jutsu to make the ink and brush appear here from another location. Like a teleportation jutsu."

"Oh."

Ready, Minato got to work. To the untrained eye, it looked mostly like he was just painting something on his son's skin. But to those that knew about fuinjutsu, he was doing something with a purpose. Once he located the part of the seal that enabled Naruto to use dark chakra that he himself didn't generate but had inside himself, Minato went to the opposing side of the seal and created a near-identical part, this one enabling the blonde boy to use light chakra inside him but not generated by himself.

'It's impossible for a mortal body to create divine chakra, so the seal should recognize it as a source much like Kyuubi's just on the opposite end of the chakra spectrum. I just wonder how divine chakra of this nature got into him in the first place and where it's coming from now.'

"That should do it." Minato said, kneeling back up when he finished.

"There we go, now Naruto try to feel for your power. It should be fine now, and it's similar to using chakra." Kushina said as Naruto felt for whatever divine presence, and he found it. It washed through him like a holy wave giving him a white streak in his blonde hair and his wings came out once more, but unlike the last time, white etherial plumes fell down once more. Kushina smiled seeing her son finally being a valkyrie. No armor or sword formed, but he felt so light and powerful.

"Naruto, I know you're mad at Freya, but please understand that you are much more fortunate then some others are now. Also, Freya asked me to arm you, and it seems right to give you this sword." Kushina held her hands apart, and she started to materialize again. This time she called forth a sword unlike any Naruto had ever seen.

Most swords Naruto saw in his lifetime had been katana, nodachi, and zanbato. The length of this sword was roughly a meter, maybe a couple centimeters longer and the blade was double-edged and bright silver-colored. The guard was pronged pointing outward with a light curve forward, the handle and guard both looking like they were made of polished gold with a white fabric wrapped around the handle to help with grip.

"Wow." Naruto responded simply.

Kushina smiled and held it out to her son. "Naruto, so you won't have to rely on chakra arms and armor all the time, I give you this sword for when you need a true weapon. If you get better, someday you will be granted a genuine suit of armor too. But for now, this will have to do."

Naruto took it, feeling it's weight in his hands. "Is it called something like Zabuza's sword was?"

Kushina nodded. "It does have a name. This sword is called Beor, which in the language of the gods means storm. And rest assured, this is no ordinary sword, but for now you don't need to know what all it can do."

"When can I learn?" Naruto asked.

"When you're no longer a rookie valkyrie. For now, try to learn how to use it like it's an ordinary sword." She and Minato then stepped aside, leaving Naruto facing Freya again.

"Boy, even though I no longer feel right punishing you as I originally intended to, and I'm admittingly curious about what you can do with this power, I'm still not letting you off the hook. Instead, I'll give you a harsh lesson in combat to keep you from busting my pretty face again. Think you can handle that?"

Naruto tightened his grip and pointed the sword outward, finding he needed both hands to best support it. "I can handle anything."

Without another word Freya darted forward, moving so fast that Naruto didn't even see her until she slowed down right next to him, almost as if she had slowed down on purpose for dramatic effect. Before he could react or reflect on this, she hit the back of his head with the butt of a sword he hadn't even seen her summon, making him fall on his face.

"That makes me feel a little better." She joked.

Naruto was quick to get back on his feet, but she was quicker to ambush him again. He blocked her sword with his, creating a cluster of sparks, and the two stared each other down.

"To be a valkyrie Naruto you must master many talents. You cannot specialize like a ninja would." She withdrew her sword and swung from a different angle, but Naruto blocked it again. "Valkyries are the first wave in wars, the frontline infantry." Another swing and another block. "Swordsmanship, archery, summoning, restraining, defending, speed, these are all things a valkyrie must be good at."

Freya then swung her foot, knocking Naruto off his own feet and falling on his back. Once he was there she held the point of her own sword at his neck. "Valkyrie training and warfare is excruciating. There's a reason only the dead learn it and even then it's still reserved for those that showed talent in life. For you to succeed you have to learn what no mortal ever has before and never fail once or it could mean your life and quite possibly your afterlife as well."

"I can handle it. I'm not dying until after I become Hokage." Naruto argued then raised his wing quickly to knock her sword off-center just long enough for him to roll away and get back on his feet. Rolling with bird wings didn't feel comfortable, but he withstood the discomfort quite well.

'Wow, didn't think he'd try that. Guess he's got some of Kushina's creativity.' Freya thought, a bit impressed though she didn't show it. "Bit of advice kid, Death doesn't care about your plans or schedule. I understand your intentions behind your words and admire your resolve, but I'm just warning you not to take them too literally."

Before he could respond she charged at him again, intentionally giving him an opening to see what he might do about it.

Instead of dodging, Naruto charged back at her, taking the opening and swinging his sword at her side, hitting her armor but not damaging it. After that, the two stood apart with their backs facing each other, like something right out of a samurai movie scene.

"You missed me boy." She taunted, not feeling another scratch on her body.

"Did I?" He asked, confusing her.

Freya looked herself over, then heard a tear. Next thing she knew, her armor plating fell off her, leaving her bare chest and back exposed to the entire world.

Minato and Kushina were wide-eyed to see this result while Naruto smirked triumphantly still looking away. Freya herself screamed in embarrassment and covered her large B-cup breasts with her arms. 'He... he actually cut the leather clasps that keep my torso armor tied together. I've never been more humiliated in all my life.'

Glaring at the boy, she held our her sword while keeping her left arm over her breasts. As much as she wanted to cover herself up again, she wanted to end this so-called spar first and teach this mortal his place like she originally intended to before Kushina begged for mercy.

Charging forward with intent to wound, he heard her approach and moved to block her attack. She aimed her sword for his shoulder and he had to jump to dodge. While he was dodging she swiftly swung towards him figuring he couldn't dodge this time. At that moment both fighters remembered he now had wings and he took to the air, thus only receiving a cut on his left pant leg instead of his body.

Naruto was amazed he was actually up in the air, his wings beating to keep him up but not moving in any direction. "Wow. I can fly?"

"Why have wings if you can't use them?" Kushina asked.

Forgetting the fight for a moment, Naruto flapped his wings and went higher before he adjusted his body's balance and went forward. Like a bird he almost seemed to just know how to move thru the air, and was greatly enjoying himself. 'Let's see them call this demonic in Konoha.'

Suddenly Freya appeared in front of him, hovering but without wings. "I'm not done with you boy." She hit his head with the butt of her sword, impacting his nose like he had done to her, resulting in him crashing to the ground.

"You can fly too?" He asked, hand on his bleeding nose.

Freya landed and held her sword out pointed at his sternum. "You didn't really think the commander of an entire army of winged soldiers would be flightless did you?" She then raised her sword, as if intending to cleave him with her next move.

"Freya no!" Kushina screamed then started to run forward.

Before Kushina could reach the warrior goddess someone burst out of the surrounding bushes from behind Naruto screaming the same thing. The surprise made Freya halt her swing, giving the newcomer enough time to stand between her and Naruto defiantly.

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, completely surprised by this.

Sakura stood there arms spread defensively, giving the goddess in front of her a challenging expression. "I don't know what it is you were thinking just now, but if you want to kill him you're going to have to kill me first."

Naruto was stunned, but Freya's face was unreadable. "Why would you make such a claim little girl?"

"I don't need to justify my actions to you. All you need to know is I will not stand down."

"Watch yourself. She's a genuine goddess. Maybe not the strongest but she alone can stand up to any kage in the world." Kushina warned.

"Yet Naruto was able to cut her top off I see." She countered with a small measure of mirth in her voice.

"That was just a lucky strike." Freya declared.

"So? Sometimes that's all it takes to win. Especially when the opponent is underestimating you."

"Don't recite battle principles to me girl. I wrote the book on war long before Sun Tzu did."

"Doesn't matter, I'm right and you know it." Sakura stated. "I only just got here, so I didn't see your fight, but I can see you've got dry blood on your face and your armor's been cut off. You underestimated Naruto, and you paid the price for it."

Freya reluctantly sighed and lowered her sword. "You may be right girl, but it would be even more undignified of me to fight him like he was an equal. No deity with even a shred of self-respect would fight a mortal like he was a worthy adversary. It would be like a grown man fighting a baby, so one-sided they'd lose all respect for even starting it."

"But you did start this." Naruto pointed out.

"No, you did by hitting my nose with your scalp. No self-respecting deity would allow a mortal to get away with striking them either. This fight was not a battle, but a way to teach you respect for your superiors as well as letting me see how well you use your gift. Now, advert your eyes while I redress and make my judgment on you."

Naruto wisely looked away while Freya picked up her armor. Her torso guard was made of two pieces, front and back with leather clasps on both sides holding it in place. Naruto cut the left side straps thus the whole thing opened since it couldn't hold together anymore. The interior was lined with satin cloth for comfort which is why she didn't have a bra or undershirt under it. The rest of her armor on her arms, legs, and hips had the same design to it to keep her from wearing multiple layers which might interfere in her movements.

Freya put it back in place and transformed her outfit back into a regular tunic, which now had a tear on her left abdomen to reflect the damage done earlier. She looked at Naruto, who stood beside Sakura trying to look as tough as possible even with a little blood on his own face. His wings were gone, meaning his battle spirit was at the moment diminished, but there was a bit of an imperceptible glow to him still meaning he was ready to go on if she pressed him.

"Boy, like I said before you have something that no one of your kind was meant to have, and so far you have mostly used your strength to anger me. By possessing valkyrie power, you belong under my jurisdiction and are therefore my subordinate, much like to your Hokage. And I am fully within my rights to have you killed now for the disrespect you have displayed."

She pointed her sword at him, making everyone nervous. Then she smiled. "Yet... you did manage to hurt my body and my pride in ways no one else ever has before. As tempted as I am to kill you, I must admit I'm even more curious to see what kind of terror you can unleash on a true enemy if you can do all that to me. So for now, I will let you keep this power and your life."

Naruto and Kushina both sighed in relief while Minato and Sakura both looked pleased with the verdict.

"Just don't make me change my mind later on boy. If I ever find out you're misusing your power, I'll see to it you never see another day." The goddess warned, lowering her sword.

"All I want is to help those I care about and show people I'm a human being, not something else." The blonde told her firmly.

"Then consider this your trial period. I shall give you one year starting today, the standard rookie probation time for new valkyries, to learn how and why to use your power. This date next year, I will return to see your progress. If I am impressed I will determine your rank as valkyrie, and if I am displeased, you will perish. Understood?"

"Will this interfere with my ninja training?" Naruto asked.

"I imagine it wouldn't, but if it does you will have to place your ninja training on hold until you finish this."

"But I-" Naruto objected, only to be cut off.

"Don't argue with this Naruto. It is vital you learn as much as you can in one year's time. If you can be a valkyrie and a ninja at the same time, then great, but if you can't, you're more valuable as a valkyrie than as a ninja. In time, you'll understand exactly why." She then looked upwards at the sky. "I'm done here. Heimdall, bring me back." She then face the whiskered blond again. "Naruto, while Kushina will be allowed to visit you one day per month and stay with you for seven more days now, it won't just be for pleasantries and family bonding." Freya said as she floated in the air, ready to return to Asgard.

Naruto was confused, his week of training just started and Freya was pleased with his progress in it, only for her to drop this bombshell on him. "What do you mean that she isn't just seeing me just to see me? You mean she can't be my mother even when she can see me?" He asked and was surprised even further when the goddess gave him a somber look.

"Naruto, Kushina is meant to be more than just your mother. She is meant to be your instructor, your superior officer, and your provider as well. That is why I'm granting her permission to remain her for another seven days, to get you started on your training. She may give you requests for warriors of a particular calibur, einherjar that may make or break the time of the Ragnorak. She can be your mother too when you're not training, but she is required to train you as well. If the Allfather is pleased with your progress in training and your service to Asgard he may send gifts with Kushina to reward or encourage you to do better. Gifts with power beyond mortal reckoning. Gifts you must be _very_ careful in using."

Naruto was feeling better when she said that. "At least I get what most orphans only dream of. That makes me happier more than any training ever could."

Just then a great storm seemed to appear above the goddess. "It's time for me to go, but I will keep my ears open for your progress over the year. I expect to hear good things. Oh, and your punishment for attacking me is that you aren't allowed to eat your favorite food for a month, and anytime you try it will turn to ash in your mouth. Farewell."

"WHAT?" He shouted as she disappeared into the cloud which disappeared right after her.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

That night no one said anything more about Kushina's appearance. Those that did know knew enough for the time being and those that didn't know didn't need to learn right away. Also, seeing Naruto exhausted from all he had experienced that day really didn't make anyone want to press the issue.

The next day, Kakashi called his entire team together for a meeting outside. Haku joined because she wanted to hear the entire story. Tazuna and his family kept out of it because they figured this was some ninja secret they were safer not knowing.

Kakashi took his genin back to where he taught them tree-walking, and there Kushina and Minato were already waiting. This time everyone could clearly see who they were, and while Sakura yesterday had gotten a glimpse, she had been too preoccupied with Freya and Naruto to truly notice who Naruto's father was.

Once Sakura and Sasuke got a good look at him this time, they froze. Of course they recognized him, every student in the academy would since he was paraded around Konoha as the greatest man to ever come out of it. Not recognizing him would be like not recognizing the Daimyo when you saw him.

"How... how is the Yondaime here?" Sakura asked, being the only one who could. Sasuke's jaw was heavily bandaged so speaking was impossible for him until they returned to Konoha where a proper medic could treat him.

"He's my personal summons. Any my husband. Why wouldn't he be here with me?" Kushina asked.

'Naruto's father is the Yondaime?' Sakura asked, quickly seeing the resemblance between the two.

'What? This cannot be.' Sasuke thought, livid and skeptical. He could not deny the physical resemblance between the two with them both in the same area, but the idea of Naruto being a hokage's son did not sit well with him. It implied many things that did not fit into his paradigm.

Haku didn't have much of an opinion on this, but knew this was a time to be respectful.

"Rest assured you all that I am the real thing." Minato told them. "And my son now has the ability to summon me to assist him when he needs me. Just don't overuse the privilege Naruto."

"Summon?" Haku asked.

Minato nodded. "Yes. You see, my wife and I are dead spirits in service of the gods, but Naruto has awakened a unique ability to summon me when he's in need of my skills. He can also summon other einherjar in time."

"Ein-ha-ja?" Sakura repeated poorly, unfamiliar with the foreign word.

"Einherjar. It's a male warrior for the gods that was once a mortal male whose skills in battle in their life impressed the gods and earned them a place in... what you might call Heaven's Barracks. Basically I'm now a warrior angel, and so is my wife, though she's called a valkyrie, the female version." Minato explained.

"So Naruto can summon angels?" Haku asked.

"Sort of, but it's not that simple." Kushina answered. "Naruto can only summon the einherjar, the male angels, and even then he has to prove to the einherjar that he's someone worth fighting with."

"Just like with any normal summons." Kakashi commented.

"Exactly."

"So is that why Naruto looked like an angel the other day?" Sakura asked.

"Honestly, I have no idea what caused that in him. But I think his summoning ability is a side-effect, not the cause." Kushina answered.

Since he couldn't speak, Sasuke had been given a notepad and pen to tell others what he couldn't say. He handed Kushina a note that read 'What exactly can he do?'

"If he has all the same powers I do, and right now I have little reason to believe otherwise, then there are a lot of things he can accomplish." Kushina answered. "However, it would be best not to say too much on the subject right now."

"Why not?" Sakura asked, beating Sasuke to it.

"Mostly it's a security risk. My son's power has a lot of uncertain variables to it so the less broadcasted it is the better. As teammates you two should be allowed to know some of it but not so much you pose a risk to him or yourselves for others wanting to learn too."

"This is actually standard security procedure." Kakashi interjected. "One of the easiest ways to learn about your enemy is to attack their teammates and get the answers out of them so when you face the actual enemy you're better prepared. As teammates you are all expected to know a little about what skills each of you has and how each of you best uses those skills, but if you know too much you put yourself and your teammates at risk in this manner. So until you three are better able to defend yourselves and have gained some T&I resistance training in, you should only know the core basics about each other."

"Would anyone really do that?" Sakura asked.

Every experienced ninja here gave her a look. "You're kidding right?" Haku asked. "It's one of the oldest tricks in the book. If you can't hurt someone directly, hurt them indirectly."

"It still feels wrong." Sakura said.

Haku steeled her eyes. "Right and wrong have no place in a life or death situation. You would be wise to remember that."

Minato looked to his students. "How well-versed are they in what to expect on the job?"

"I figured it was more important for them to learn how to work as a team before I told them how to work against enemies. Knowing what their enemy will do won't do them any good if they have no ability to counter it." Kakashi answered.

"Unfortunately the enemy isn't going to wait for them to be ready to counter. This mission should be proof enough of that." Kushina stated.

"I suppose you're right. So what do you recommend?" Kakashi asked.

"For now how about I take the girls for a lesson and you and Minato take the boys? Then you can get them back to joint training afterwards?" Kushina suggested.

"Do I have to? I ask because I'm not a part of their team nor an official ninja." Haku questioned.

"No you don't have to, but it might be beneficial if you did." The older woman answered. "So why don't you and this girl here come with me away from the boys for some girl talk?"

"My name is Sakura by the way." The pinkette clarified.

Haku thought it over and shrugged. "I guess a little female interaction once in a while won't kill me."

With a nod of approval Kushina led Sakura and Haku into a secluded part of the forest. Sakura, being the least experienced on them all, was the only one nervous about this, but reassured that she wasn't really in any danger here.

Satisfied they had privacy, Kushina materialized three chairs and sat down in one while her audience took the other two. "Girls, as kunoichi there are things you must be prepared for. Haku right?" She asked to make sure she got the brunette's name right, and she nodded. "Haku here should already know what to expect, but just to be sure I would like the opportunity to clarify. And you Sakura, are still new to this business so it's understandable you don't know every risk, but I'm getting the feeling that you don't know as much as you should."

"Why do you think that?" Sakura asked.

"It's the look in your eyes. You look so unprepared."

"With all due respect, this is my first real mission." Sakura justified.

"True, but with all due respect, I've seen the eyes of others going on their first mission before several times. There's always a certain level of preparedness in their eyes and the way they carry themselves. It's a small amount due to inexperience and uncertainly, that's understandable. But right now, you look nothing like you did when you stood up to Freya last night."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.

"Yesterday, when you stood up to her, you have a determination to you. You knew you had no chance of using force against her, but you held yourself like any veteran would. But now, you carry yourself like a child who has no idea what to expect or what to do when something does happen. I'm not trying to judge you, but body language often tells others more than you wish it did."

Haku nodded. "True. Just by what I've seen of her I can tell she's not the muscle of her team nor a trained tracker. From just that alone if I wished to kill her I could get her in taijutsu and she'd never see me coming."

Kushina nodded then looked back to Sakura. "Sakura, I'd like to know what exactly you were taught about being a kunoichi. Judging by appearance alone, I'd say it's safe to conclude you come from no clan. Am I wrong?"

Sakura shook her head. "No, my family the Haruno's has been civilian for years. I don't think anyone in my family has ever been a ninja."

"So it's likely you weren't prepared for this from an early age like most clan children are. Then everything you have learned came from the academy or ninja belonging to your social network. Do you or your family have any friends that are ninja?"

Sakura slowly nodded. "Yeah one, but I never really asked her about ninja stuff."

"Why not?"

"Because... it's complicated, but my friend and I... are on strained terms. We can barely talk to each other without lashing out."

Kushina lightly frowned. "Then why would you consider this person a friend if you can't even have a decent conversation with them?"

"Well, she's the only friend I have besides Naruto." Sakura answered feebly.

Haku did not look convinced. "Sakura, no offense, but after what you told me, I don't think you have the right to call Naruto a friend."

Sakura looked shamefully at the ground until Kushina cleared her throat. "Enough, we're not here to discuss this. What I want is to know what Sakura here thought she was getting into when she accepted her hitai-ate."

The pinkette looked up at the redhead, wondering if the older woman was expecting a specific answer here. "I knew I'd be going out on missions, learning new skills, and be expected to defend Konoha in hard times."

"A bit oversimplified for an answer. Can you repeat that but in more depth?" Kushina asked.

"Why? What more is that to say?"

"So much more." Kushina stated, then turned to Haku. "Haku, care to explain to her just what being a kunoichi entails?"

"I can, but I must warn you my explanation isn't exactly orthodox."

Kushina looked amused. "We're ninja. We don't do orthodox."

"Very true." The ice wielder said before looking back to the pinkette. "Sakura, have you ever thought about what kind of missions you'd be sent on? What skills you'd have to learn? Why you'd have to learn them? Or how you're expected to defend your home or serve it?"

"What are you getting at? Are you saying I'm some kind of little kid pretending to be something I don't understand?" Sakura asked, getting offended.

"You're the youngest one here. It's our responsibility to ensure you know what you're getting into. You can help us do that by telling us what you already know. But from your answer, we're worried that you never really gave this much thought."

"I have so." Sakura defended.

"Then tell me Sakura, why did you choose to become a ninja?" Haku asked. "Surely you were warned that this wasn't going to be all fun and games and there was a good chance you'd die young, so what made you decide it was still worth it?"

"Because then I'd get to make friends and not be expected to do my mom's line of work when I'm older."

Both older kunoichi arched an eyebrow and looked skeptical. "Let me get this straight, you joined the ranks merely to get a social life?"

"In the beginning. I was just a kid. What other reason would a kid who doesn't come from a clan have?" Sakura argued.

"What about as you got older?" Kushina asked. "When you were ignorant that answer would have been excusable, but after the first year in the academy you had to know what you'd be required to do. Why did you stay then? Was it still to have someone to call a friend?"

"Umm... sort of."

Kushina narrowed her eyes. "Let me guess, it was a boy. You found a boy you liked and stayed so you could be around him right?" The Uzumaki matriarch was no stranger to fangirls; there were usually a couple in each class.

"What's wrong with that? I'm showing him I care about him and can be strong and supportive of him." Sakura justified.

"You don't need to be a ninja to do that." Kushina answered.

"But if I'm not, Sasuke-kun would find a girl who would and-"

"And what? Maybe be happy with her? Have a family with _her_? Instead of you?" Kushina asked. "Is he not allowed to be happy without you being a part of it?"

"Aren't I allowed to be happy too?" Sakura asked.

Kushina nodded. "Yes, but believing he's not supposed to love anyone but you is selfish."

"Is it wrong to want someone you care about to return the feelings?" Sakura asked.

"Too bad you never considered that when it came to Naruto." Haku muttered, although Sakura did still catch it.

Before an argument could break out, Kushina spoke up again. "Sakura, when you became a kunoichi, you didn't sign up to be a cheerleader or a girlfriend. You signed up to be a warrior, a mercenary, a soldier. You are expected to keep your mind on the job when you have a job to do and to always try to get better at performing the next one. You can't do that if your main priority is impressing someone else."

"Well what about Haku? Her main goal was impressing Zabuza."

The aforementioned girl shook her head. "Actually, my main goal was being useful to Zabuza-sama. And to be useful, I had to have strength, speed, precision, medical expertise, tracking skills, and no doubts about what I would do for him. Impressing him was a natural consequence of doing my job well, not my job's goal."

Kushina nodded. "That's how you're supposed to go about it Sakura. The best way to impress someone is to not actually try to impress them. And right now, you should be more focused on being a strong kunoichi and helpful teammate rather than eligible for a date."

Sakura closed her eyes and placed her hand on her injured left shoulder. 'Maybe I should stop trying to get Sasuke-kun's affections so much, at least for a little while. Long enough to show these two I can be more than just a fangirl. Besides, right now I'm more concerned about becoming a better friend and teammate to Naruto, and who better to help me become both than his mother?'

Filled with a sense of purpose, Sakura straightened up and looked ready to take on anything. "Alright then, Uzumaki-sensei, tell me what I need to know."

The smile on Kushina's face was both soothing and somewhat unsettling for the young girl.

* * *

Meanwhile, Minato and Kakashi were about to educate Naruto and Sasuke. Neither boy knew what to expect, but both were hoping for something stronger than what they had now.

"Before we start anything, there's one thing we should cover first." Minato said before looking to Naruto. "Son, one of your powers is to summon people like me but only those you can get permission from to summon. You already have my permission, but we need to see if you can actually do it. So I'm going to teach you Einherjar Summoning for starters."

Naruto nodded, eager to learn how to get his father to come to him whenever he needed him.

"Now, since this requires divine chakra to use you do not need hand signs to do this type of jutsu." Minato explained, then glanced at the two attentive sharingan possessors. "As an FYI to you both, in case you or anyone else gets curious, since this jutsu doesn't require anything physical it's impossible for the sharingan to copy or analyze it. And even if it could, you need to possess divine chakra to perform it and very, very few mortals have it. So I wouldn't waste your time or chakra trying to see how this works."

Kakashi nodded, knowing his sensei was being cautious rather than distrustful. He was merely warning them for their own good, not paranoid about Naruto's skills being stolen by his own team. Besides, Kakashi was still tired from fighting Zabuza the other day so he couldn't copy any jutsu even if he wanted to right now.

Sasuke was a little less satisfied. Now that he had his sharingan active, he really wanted to try it out by copying a jutsu. That was normal for anyone who found they could use their kekkei genkai for the first time, whether or not they were Uchihas. Problem was he hadn't been able to yet. Haku had nothing he could copy, Sakura had nothing he didn't already have, and Kakashi was in no shape to use any chakra. It was very unlikely the Yondaime and his wife would just show him anything, so Naruto was pretty much his only real source here. But if Naruto was using jutsu unique only to him, then Sasuke was back to square one.

Facing his son, Minato continued. "Making the bond between valkyrie and einherjar is easy. Summoning is a bit tougher, as there are rules to it. You cannot summon in anger or fear; einherjar are meant to be your allies, not your weapons or shield. You also cannot summon with selfish intent; einherjar are not supposed to be used to be used to take hits for you nor are they supposed to do work you don't want to do. If they do either, it should be because they want to, not because you brought them to you for it. And most importantly, even though you can have multiple einherjar in your service, each one can only be summoned once a day. And when they're gone, you have to wait until after the next sunset to summon that specific einherjar again. Understand?"

Naruto nodded since most of that made sense, but one part didn't. "Why only once a day?"

"It's part of my own training requirements as an einherjar." He answered.

"You're still training?" Naruto asked in disbelief.

Minato nodded. "I'm still a warrior Naruto and a good warrior never lets their skills stagnate. Getting power of any kind is like swimming up a current, you have to constantly work at it to go forward and if you stop you don't stay in place you go backwards. I'm a soldier in the god's army; I can't afford to stop going forward."

"But why only once a day?" Naruto asked.

"It helps us remember what it's like to be mortal, and thus more careful in how we fight. It's sort of like an unofficial death. But enough about that. To summon an einherjar, you have to say three things. The first is the phrase, 'Come to me my einherjar', though once you get experienced at this you can skip that part. The third part is the name of the one you're summoning. The second part is your choice of words, but it should be an appropriate command or request of the one you're summoning. It's best if you keep it simple and also unique to the einherjar you're trying to summon. Using the same one for all of them kind of implies they're all the same to you. After that, release your divine chakra to materialize them at your side."

Naruto nodded. "Hey Yondai-"

"You can call me Dad you know, son." The older blonde told the younger.

"I was wondering, you said I could have more than one of these einherjar. If they're all already dead, how do I get another?"

"Smart question. The answer is you contact them and ask them if they are willing to fight with you."

Naruto was understandably confused. "How do I contact the dead?"

"It's similar to summoning. You think of the person you want, say their name and say 'I beseech thee to come to me'. Yeah it's corny as hell but it works. With that, you can summon ghostly versions to either two types of people, actual einherjar from Valhalla or lingering shades that have yet to go to any afterlife realm and thus still remain in this world as ghosts."

Naruto suddenly looked frightened. "G-ghosts? You want me to summon ghosts?"

"You're not afraid of ghosts are you?"

"When all of your nights are spent being paranoid of each sound and moving shadow, you don't exactly enjoy things that go bump in the night." The whiskered blonde stated.

Minato closed his eyes ruefully. 'Someone back home has a hell of a lot of explaining to do.' He then opened his eyes. "Rest assured Naruto, anyone you summon this way cannot hurt you at all. On a similar note you won't be able to hurt them. No valkyrie is allowed to summon anyone with intent to attack them. The worst that can happen is some nasty words being exchanged, and if that happens you just say 'Begone' and the ghost disappears before they can say more. Is that any better?"

Still nervous, Naruto nodded. "A little."

Sasuke suddenly wrote on his pad in a hurry and practically shoved the paper into Naruto's hands.

"Summon my parents. I want to see them." Naruto read along, then his eyes widened a bit. "Can I do that?"

"As long as they aren't in any of the three hells then it's possible, though your summoning applies only to male spirits so you can't summon his mother. Just his father, and even then he needs to be in either Valhalla or roaming the earth somewhere." Minato clarified, carefully glancing at Sasuke. 'So his parents are dead too? It's perfectly understandable he'd want to see them now that there's a chance. Question is will this help him bond with my son, or make him jealous?'

"Could you summon my father too Naruto?" Kakashi asked. 'It would really be nice to see him even just one more time.'

"Only one of these summons at a time can be done." Minato stated.

"Sorry Kakashi-sensei, but Sasuke asked first." Naruto said then looked to his teammate. 'I don't like his attitude or what he did on the bridge, but he misses his parents just as much as I did and he deserves the chance to see one of them too if he can.' "What's your father's name."

'Fugaku Uchiha' He wrote.

"Okay, Fugaku Uchiha, I beseech thee to come to me." Naruto said, hoping for the best.

What happened in the next minute would affect Sasuke for the rest of his life.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

"Fugaku Uchiha, I beseech thee to come to me." Naruto said, hoping this worked.

Sasuke watched with more interest than he ever had before in his life. 'I'll get to see my father again. He'll be proud to see me with my sharingan and to hear I killed a missing nin that even gave my sensei trouble. And he can tell me how to kill Itachi.'

Unfortunately, nothing happened.

Naruto looked at Minato. "Did I mess up?"

"It works better if you can picture the person in your mind. Sasuke, could you provide a picture of this man?"

Bothered by the lack of a working summons, Sasuke frantically tried to draw his father's face from memory. It wasn't that hard, given he looked at an old photo of his parents practically every day since the massacre. When he finished he handed it to Naruto, his eyes saying what his mouth couldn't, 'You better succeed this time dobe.'

Naruto looked at the surprisingly well-drawn portrait of Fugaku. "Not exactly the happiest guy in the world is he?" Sasuke growled deep in his throat over this.

"Now Naruto-" Kakashi tried to say.

"Sensei, look at the guy." Naruto replied, showing the picture of Fugaku. In it the deceased Uchiha was all but scowling. "He looks like the stick up his ass is a cactus. Sasuke, if _this_ is how you remember your father, I feel sorry for you."

Outraged, Sasuke wrote down another note and forced Naruto to read it. 'At least MY father raised me. Yours decided he'd rather die then have anything to do with YOU.'

Deeply offended by this, Naruto snarled and instantly started to pummel his teammate, who decided to pummel back. There was no semblance of ninja skills here, it was exactly like a child's playground beat-down.

Minato and Kakashi quickly broke it up and pulled the two apart. "Hey! Settle down!"

"Dad, look what he wrote about you." Naruto said, grabbing the note and holding it up to him.

Joyed that his son called him 'dad', Minato ignored that for the moment and read the note. Once he did, he sympathized with his son. He handed the note to Kakashi and stared down at Sasuke. "You've got a lot of nerve young man to say such a thing. I died to save my village so people like you and my son would still have a home. Now you apologize to my son right now."

Sasuke hmmphed and looked away, his pride refusing to let him admit he acted in the wrong even though he knew he had spoken/written in anger more than anything.

"Alright, since you refuse to apologize, we'll have Naruto summon someone else." Minato said, helping his son back on his feet. "Naruto, why don't you try summoning someone you're a little more familiar with, just to be sure you aren't doing it wrong."

"I think I know who to try it out on." The whiskered blonde said before closing his eyes and trying to build up his chakra as if to do a jutsu. "Zabuza Momochi, I beseech thee to come to me."

Kakashi and Sasuke were shocked he chose that particular person to summon, but could object, mists started spewing out of the ground like there was a pocket of steam underground. The mist quickly took the form of a person, and features formed quickly to, until Zabuza Momochi was very recognizable, albeit transparent.

"What just happened to me?" Zabuza asked, staring at his hands seeing how ethereal he was now.

"I brought you back to see if this works for me." Naruto said. "Also I thought Haku might want to see you again. She's over there." He pointed to where the girls went off to.

Zabuza looked that direction and nodded. "Thanks kid. Is she okay?"

"She's mourning for you, but she's not suicidal. But I'm sure she'd appreciate this."

Zabuza smiled. "Thanks again kid." From the corner of his eye he saw Sasuke. "But before I go..." He cocked his fist and punched Sasuke right in the jaw. Or he would have, if his hand didn't go right thru the Uchiha's body. "What the hell?"

"You can't hurt others like this, nor can anyone hurt you. You won't get anything like a physical body unless you agree to be my son's Einherjar, a soldier under his command." Minato told the ghost.

Zabuza looked at the blonde man. "You're the Yondaime Hokage right? And this kid's your son?" Minato nodded. "I guess there are worse things I could agree to, but I'm going to check on my apprentice first while I have the chance."

"Go ahead." Naruto told him. Zabuza wasted no time in leaving. Naruto then turned to Kakashi. "Got a picture of your father?"

"Not on me, but once we get back to Konoha-" The cycloptic nin said, but stopped when he considered the implications. "Sensei, some people in Konoha will try and push the CRA on him once they learn what he can do."

Minato thought it over. " Hmm... you're right."

"What's the CRA?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke was half-tempted to tell the blonde that he didn't want to know. He knew full well what the CRA was, but refused to enact it for himself yet because it would have turned the fangirls into fangirls in heat. But before he spoke, he briefly pictured Naruto chased by hordes of fangirls and mentally grinned. 'I doubt anyone would want him even then, and if there are girls dumb enough to want him, let the dobe see what it's like.'

"CRA stands for Clan Restoration Act. It's one of the oldest laws in Konoha but to this day it's never been enacted." Kakashi told his student. "Because Konoha has several clans with unique fighting styles, the CRA was put in place to be a way to keep them from dying out in case their numbers were greatly reduced."

"How does it work?" Naruto asked.

"In the simplest terms, the last few members of the clan are given the right to have several wives or husbands, depending on their gender, and must have children with all of them, the number of wives in your case based on how many Uzumaki are left and how likely your children are to receive your bloodline. So in your case, I'd say no less than four wives would be possible for you."

Naruto looked shocked, then revolted. "Like even one girl wants to be around me. How can you expect more than one to even consider this?"

"Naruto, you may be more desirable to women than you believe." Kakashi told him, mostly saying it to calm him down. 'I hope he doesn't ask for an example, because I'd be stressed to give him one.'

Naruto did not look convinced. "Even if that was true, it's kind of an insult."

Kakashi looked confused. "How so?"

"It's like Konoha's saying I have more value to them as a sperm donor than as a ninja. That I'm not worth training but my kids are. And I'm supposed to ignore all this just because I supposedly get several girls that all conveniently love me enough to share me? Yeah right, it's not going to happen. You know it and I know it."

"Well I'm pretty sure there's at least one girl out there that would want to be with you someday." Minato told his son. "What about your teammate, or the girl you saved?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Yeah right, once Sasuke enacts this CRA for himself there won't be any girls left for me. Though if there _was_ one girl who actually _did_ want to be with me, that would be enough for me. And I don't care if they think my kids'll be more valuable then me, I'll still be the greatest Hokage ever!"

Sasuke quickly scribbled down his thoughts. 'I don't want that. Hell if you can get Sakura for yourself then good for you.' Naruto read it but didn't respond. Instead he put it in his pocket.

"Let's ignore this for now and get to training." Minato said, getting both boys in better moods.

* * *

That night everyone was resting up, except for Minato, Kushina, and Kakashi.

"It's likely there are people employed under Gato that are still left and not happy about being out of work now. And if that's true, then they may decide to take matters into their own hands here." Kakashi theorized.

Minato nodded. "Sounds reasonable. While we're here we ought to go ahead and deal with it. But let's leave the children out of it, they've done enough already."

"Won't we need someone to show us where these survivors likely would be?" Kushina asked.

"Haku might be able to show us, or how about Zabuza? Since he's a ghost he could scout if nothing else." Kakashi suggested.

The jounins turned to the main room. Haku was happily interacting with the ghost of her mentor, glad to know she could see him again thanks to Naruto. And thanks to a photograph Tsunami provided, Naruto had managed to summon the ghost of Kaiza as well, greatly pleasing Inari. Sasuke was silently fuming that he didn't have his father back, but no one was paying attention to that.

"Hey Zabuza." Kushina called out, grabbing the missing nin's attention. "Did you ever decide on if you want to be my son's einherjar?"

The swordsman looked to his apprentice. "Haku, what do you think of the boy?"

"There's a lot to him I don't know yet, but what I do know makes me think he's a kindred spirit and not someone who'd want the worst for anyone. I'm certain that if you found him you'd do for him what you did for me. Plus, I admit his ability to bring you back even if only temporarily has increased his appeal to me. So I'm comfortable in placing my trust in him."

Zabuza was glad to hear that. "Good. I didn't want to leave until I knew you'd be looked after. I still dislike how suicidal you sound without me to stop you."

"If you take their offer, you can do more than just look." She pointed out.

"It would be fun to fight again. Alright, I'm in. How do we make it official?"

"You two shake on it." Kushina answered.

Zabuza, Haku, and Naruto both looked unconvinced. "That's it?"

"What were you expecting?" Kushina asked.

"I don't know, but not that." Zabuza replied.

Naruto extended his hand. "Good enough for me." Zabuza decided not to complain and extended his own hand.

The two hands connected and this time Zabuza didn't pass thru what he was touching. He could feel Naruto's hand and a surge of warmth spread from his palm to his entire ghostly body. For two brief seconds he could also swear he had a seizure as a ghost, something that shouldn't be possible in any sense of the word.

Then it stopped, and Zabuza did something he hadn't done since he died.

He breathed.

"Zabuza-sama... you're alive." Haku happily told him, seeing her mentor look flesh and blood again rather than spiritual. She then hugged him to make sure she was not seeing things, and was pleased to feel a real body.

"Not quite." Minato told the ice wielder. "He only looks alive. He's like me, a dead spirit but with the same limitations as a living being. Helps us learn how to fight better when we remember that we can get hurt."

Kushina looked to her son. "Now Naruto, you can summon him when you need to, just remember the instructions for it. And try not to use the same personal phrase you would use for your father." He nodded and Kushina looked over the adults. "Now, why don't we go take care of what's left of Gato's forces and assets?"

"Sounds good to me." Zabuza said. "Just let me go get my sword."

"Don't wait up for us. Just behave for our hosts." Kakashi told his students before all the jounin went outside to take care of the loose ends of the mission.

Haku looked at Naruto warmly, then surprised him with a hug of his own. "Thank you Naruto. I cannot thank you enough for letting me see Zabuza-sama again, and for saving me from myself on the bridge. I owe you my life."

"You don't owe me anything." He told her, embarrassed by the close contact.

She looked right into his eyes. "Yes I do. I'd be dead if it weren't for you. Not only that, not only do I now get to keep seeing Zabuza-sama, but he gets to be in Heaven now thanks to you. How can you say I don't owe you?"

"I was just doing what was right. I don't expect to be rewarded for doing the right thing." He told her.

"You don't have to expect it to deserve it. I owe you my life and that's final."

"But-" He objected.

"Just let her have her way Naruto." Sakura told him, smiling at him since he was so flustered. "It'll be easier on you if you do."

"Umm... okay? But what do you plan to do Haku-chan?" He asked.

She smiled, having never been called chan before but liked it. "Simple, I go where you go and help you when you need it."

The whiskered blonde pried her off him. "Haku, I don't need a tool. I'll be happy to be your friend, but I'm not going to be some sort of master for you."

Getting an idea, Haku knelt down and sat submissively. "Naruto-sama, how may I please you today?" She said, trying not to laugh at his bothered look. Even Sakura wanted to giggle at the act.

"Don't do that." He said.

"Do I not satisfy you Naruto-sama?" She asked, faking upset.

"Haku, you're freaking me out here." He said.

"Then allow me to make you calm again." She said.

"Alright Haku, you can stop the act before you give this guy an aneurysm or something." Sakura told the brunette.

Smiling, Haku stood up. "Alright, but I meant what I said about owing you Naruto."

"Everything okay?" Tsunami asked as she walked in the room, dressed but with a towel wrapped around her hair.

"Yeah but what's with the towel?" Naruto asked.

"I guess with Gato gone the city finally got its hot water back. We can have real baths again instead of scrubbing ourselves with cold water."

"Really?" Sakura asked, and Tsunami nodded. " My turn!"

"Hey Sakura-chan shouldn't we draw straws or something for turns?" Naruto asked.

"Hell no! I haven't had a real bath since we left Konoha! I need this!" She shouted, giving everyone, even Sasuke, a look that clearly said 'Try and stop me'.

"I guess we can wait." Naruto said, hoping to avoid retaliation.

"Good." Sakura told him just before going to take her first real bath here. Until now the best Tazuna's family could provide were cold baths or water that had to be heated over a fire first.

'Kushina-sama made a lot of sense today.' Sakura told herself as she got into the bathing room. She filled the tub with confirmed warm water then started to take her clothes off. 'I can't use being a ninja as an excuse for getting things I want. I need to actually work at getting stronger so I can support Naruto and Sasuke-kun, not drag them down because I want other things for myself.'

When she got into the water she sighed and looked at the ceiling. "So what do I do to get stronger? Kushina-sama says a weak kunoichi is a dead or raped kunoichi and it's immature for me to assume _that_ can only happen to other girls. Maybe Naruto would actually train with me if I stop turning down his offers. Besides, it should help us get along better. I don't want there to be a problem between us, but how do I really fix it?"

She got her answer as something Naruto said came back to her. _"Until Sasuke gets back on his feet. Then I'll just be an afterthought again. I'm glad she's being nice now, but I know it's just temporary. She left her best friend to devote her attention to Sasuke, her best friend. So why wouldn't she do the exact same thing to me?"_

Then the words of Kushina came to her. _"I sacrificed my life so he could live, and apparently the rest of the village have taken that sacrifice for granted. And from what I heard, so have you. I'm not going to let a little girl who only likes my son when no one else is around talk to me like she has a moral high ground."_

"Is that the problem?" Sakura asked herself. "Does Naruto really think I'm not going to try and be his friend? But why would he think that? I..."

She found she couldn't finish that thought, then sighed, staring at her reflection in the bathwater. "Of course he would you damn fool. Just look at your past history. You _did_ break things off with Ino, and the one time you were nice to Naruto was when he was tied up in the bell test and needed food, and the only reason you offered your own was because Sasuke-kun did first. If... if he hadn't, would I have left Naruto to starve?"

At that question her eyes widened and both hands went to her face, fingertips touching above her eyes while her palms hovered shakily over her cheeks. "Dear Kami what kind of person am I? Would I really have left someone to suffer until someone acted first?" She closed her eyes. "No, I'm not like that. Of course I'm willing to help others."

'Then why didn't you?' She thought before she stopped herself. 'Was it really because Kakashi-sensei warned you not to? Or was it because it was Naruto that was hungry?'

Her mind went silent, but the implications of what she thought made her want to vomit. She withheld the urge and instead huddled into herself as if cold despite the warm water. She also started crying.

* * *

Team Seven had to stay in Wave for another week to oversee completion of the bridge. Luckily with Gato gone and any remnants of his operation destroyed by the jounin, construction soared on the project and it easily got finished ahead of schedule. Gato's funds were given back to Wave though Kakashi made sure some went to pay for their mission.

During that time Team Seven had a lot to keep themselves occupied. Naruto was the most busy. He spent virtually every moment he could training with Kushina in his newfound powers. Most of this included kenjutsu, which Zabuza assisted him in when he was summoned, and improved his taijutsu form greatly. Needless to say Kushina was quite disgusted with the form someone in Konoha made him learn. With the manner of fighting he did have, the only way Naruto could hit someone was by accident.

That wasn't all Naruto was doing. Thanks to summoning the ghost of Kaiza, Naruto got the idea to allow the people of Wave to talk to the spirits of their deceased loved ones. He of course made them swear never to tell anyone outside Wave so enemy villages or ninja wouldn't get the wrong idea, and made clear there were limitations to how he could summon them, but the people agreed to anything as long as he could fulfill his end.

Ultimately, almost everyone got to see a deceased father, son, brother, grandfather, uncle, or friend again, even if only for one night. Not every request could be made, but the people of Wave who could give Naruto photos were very grateful to see their loved ones in person one more time.

Sasuke's jaw stopped hurting but he still couldn't speak properly. He made an effort of training away from Naruto, going out of his way to avoid the blonde. Kakashi was worried that Sasuke was jealous he hadn't seen his own father's ghost yet and wouldn't be a team player until he got what he wanted.

Sakura surprised Kakashi by being the opposite, always trying to be around Naruto. She actively trained with him when she could and helped him understand things better. There were no cries of idiot or hits to his head. Not to say Sakura thought everything he said or did was smart, but instead of demeaning him she corrected him. Kakashi was glad she was starting to get along with him more.

The day came for Team Seven to leave, and it was also the day Kushina had to go back to Sessrumnir. But she didn't plan on leaving until the last possible minute. Haku agreed to go with them to Konoha as long as everyone knew she was not to be used as a breeding factory and Naruto would still summon Zabuza on occasion. No one argued.

The Konoha nin and Haku were on the now completed bridge and everyone in Wave was gathered to see them off. Some were asking to see ghosts again but Naruto told them he had to get going.

"We cannot thank you all enough for what you've done." Tazuna told the team. "Thanks to you, we are free again, and now we have the courage to stand up for ourselves if someone else decides to finish what Gato started."

"We're glad to help, though next time don't lie about the level of ninja you need." Kakashi told him in good spirit.

"We won't. Oh, and before you head off, allow us to give one of you a gift." The bridge builder said before looking at Naruto. "You boy are the one who reminded us what we should fight for, and you gave us peace of mind regarding those we lost. For that, it was unanimously decided we would name this bridge the Great Naruto Bridge."

The blonde was speechless. "Re... really? You don't have to you know."

"Hey my first choice was Super Naruto Bridge, but Great Naruto Bridge won the vote."

"Super?" Naruto repeated.

"So we should call it the Super Naruto Bridge then?" Tazuna asked.

Naruto shook his head. "No, the other one sounds better."

"Then the Great Naruto Bridge it is. Feel free to come by and see us again anytime you want."

Everyone nodded but Sakura could tell Naruto still felt unworthy of the praise. "Relax Naruto, this is what you always wanted right? To be recognized and acknowledged? If you can do that here then maybe you really can become Hokage someday."

He was surprised to hear that, but he smiled at the pinkette. "Yeah, you're right." Then he turned to the villagers and gave them a thumbs up. "Thanks everyone. When I become Hokage of Konoha I'll be sure to thank you for this."

Haku leaned to Sakura and whispered. "Did you mean that or are you just trying to make him feel better?"

"Can't it be both?"


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

The trip back to Konoha was surprisingly quiet for a team that had Naruto Uzumaki in it. The other day Kushina had left back to where valkyrie spent their afterlives, and Minato already told his son that he couldn't summon him just to stave off loneliness. So right now Naruto was more silent than he ever had been before, usually only saying one or two words to anyone.

The uncharacteristic silence of the whiskered blonde was starting to get to Sakura, but she wasn't sure how to address him on it.

She got one idea though. "Hey Kakashi-sensei, can I ask you something personal?" She asked as they were setting up a camp site for the night.

Sensing she has something she couldn't say around the others, Kakashi agreed. "Okay Sakura, come with me to go get some water." He led her away from the camp to a stream nearby that made Kakashi choose this spot. "What's troubling you?" He asked when he knew no one was listening.

"Naruto. I feel like I should do something to make him feel better but I'm not sure what I can do that would make a difference."

Kakashi smiled lightly under his mask, glad to see that this mission had broken thru her myopic behavior. "To be honest Sakura, there's probably nothing you can do to make the difference you want." At her shocked expression he continued. "My guess is what you want to do is somehow perk up Naruto enough to return to normal, am I right?"

She nodded.

"Unfortunately Naruto has had a lot to deal with and no one thing or person is going to make it better for him right away. I'm actually making us take our time in returning home so he can work this out."

"What do you think is bothering him?" Sakura asked. "I mean, I can take a few guesses but you seem to understand him better than I do."

"The obvious factor is the revelation and now absence of his parents. For years Naruto has wondered who they were and now he knows, but this raises as many questions as it answers. Questions he might be afraid to ask, such as why was this kept from him and the village."

Sakura nodded. "I was wondering that too. I mean, I'm sure the Yondaime had several enemies and right after the attack we would have been too weak to properly defend, but what about since we've recovered? Am I supposed to believe Konoha is still too weak to defend itself when it goes around saying it's the strongest village and has several allies willing to defend us?"

"There's likely more to it than you or Naruto are seeing, factors that can't be explained by anyone other than the hokage himself."

"What about you Kakashi-sensei? You called Yondaime-sama your sensei. Did you know this whole time who Naruto's parents were?" Sakura inquired.

"I had my suspicions, but could never confirm it until now." The jounin admitted. "That's not all that's bothering Naruto now. He's bothered by this strange new power he's inherited and the pressure that comes with it. His mother says he's got a year to prove to a goddess with a grudge against him that he's strong enough, and it's likely people back in Konoha will take this as a sign to mistreat him even more."

"How?" Sakura asked.

"For the most part Sakura there are two types of adults in Konoha. Those that believe Naruto is the fox, and those that know he isn't but is still vulnerable to it. Even those that trust him are wary of him losing himself to the fox, and are always looking for any sign that such a thing could happen. Any sign of Naruto gaining strength makes people wonder if the fox is trying to get loose. The power he has now may look angelic but few people will accept it as such."

"What about when he summons Yondaime-sama? Won't people have to believe him?" Sakura asked.

"Some likely will, but some are likely too stubborn to believe Kami-sama himself if he defended Naruto. A sad fact is sometimes some people just refuse to believe they were wrong about something they believed so firmly in."

"Why? I mean, if they're wrong they should just accept it because denying it won't make them any less wrong. If anything it would make them more wrong." Sakura replied.

Kakashi nodded. "True, denying reality in favor of fantasy will not turn fantasy into reality. However, a paradigm shift on any level is always met with some skepticism. Some more than others. Like when you found out things about Naruto that clashed with what you already believed about him. Even if you accepted it, you didn't right away did you?"

Sakura just silently nodded. She had spent years believing the only good thing about Naruto was his ability to take a hit, but now that she knew he had famous parents, suffered silently in Konoha because of neglect and propaganda, and had even contemplated suicide before, she knew there was more to Naruto than just the class clown she was used to seeing. But finding this out wasn't enough to convince her. What convinced her was when he revealed the Kyuubi, unaware she could hear him.

When she heard that fact revealed, some pieces of the mystery that is Naruto made more sense to her. His abnormal chakra amount, the fact the hokage had an interest in him, and why her mother spoke of him like he crawled out of Hell itself. Now that all made sense.

"No, not right away. But after thinking it over and keeping in mind what Haku and Kushina-sama told me, I can see that Naruto may be nothing like what I thought he was." Sakura told her sensei.

"I wouldn't say that. Naruto hasn't become a different person, you're just realizing some of the things you didn't know before. I'd say there are things about Sasuke you don't know yet, but learning them wouldn't change him, only what you know about him." Kakashi told him.

"Kakashi-sensei, there's one thing I still don't get." The pinkette mentioned. "You said many people are convinced Naruto could destroy them at any moment, but he did so poorly in school it's amazing he passed even on a technicality. If Naruto is the Yondaime's son and is capable of using the Kyuubi's power, how can he be so weak compared to what others expect of him?"

"Sakura, before I answer that, let me explain two very important things. Naruto may be the Yondaime's son, but that does not make him identical to him. No more than you're identical to your mother. You should not judge a child by its parent. And also, Naruto only has the chakra of the Kyuubi, not the raw power of the fox. Exactly what he can do with it is unclear for now given he's never had the opportunity before, but it's not like he can recreate the things the Kyuubi is famous for. At least not right away."

"Now, in regards to your question, there isn't just one reason why Naruto isn't as skilled as he should be." Kakashi continued. "But I'd say the single biggest one is the fact that few people in Konoha ever bothered to train him or give him any help, even in the Academy."

"But Naruto was given instructions just like the rest of us." Sakura countered.

The jounin shook his head. "He was given the bare minimum so that the teachers wouldn't be fired for sabotaging a student. We all knew they were, even the hokage, but only he had jurisdiction over what happens in the Academy and he did step in when things got out of hand. Naruto didn't exactly make things easier with his lack of patience, but he did strive to perform his best."

"How do you know all this Kakashi-sensei?" The pinkette asked.

"Simple. Since some of us couldn't have a say over what Naruto was taught inside the classroom, several jounin including myself made sure to instruct him on what he learned outside. We're the ones who taught him how to read, write, cook, and handle his chakra. I myself taught him the henge years ago. We worked to ensure he knew enough to be above minimum, but in the Academy the teachers for the most part didn't care."

"Wait a minute, are you saying the reason Naruto was the dead last was because the teachers _wanted_ him to be?"

Kakashi nodded. "Yes. They knew that if they downright failed Naruto they'd likely get fired for it so they just gave him the absolute minimum passing grade. Is that really hard to believe?"

Sakura was silent for a moment. "To be honest Kakashi-sensei, it kind of is. If Hokage-sama knew this was going on, wouldn't he just step in and make things right?"

"The hokage is not omnipotent Sakura. He is only human and in regards to many things is faced with opposition. There's always going to be someone that thinks they know better than him and won't be afraid to try and convince him otherwise or try and circumvent his decisions. And since he can't be everywhere at once to enforce the law, sometimes people will decide to do things their own way, whether or not it's within the perimeters of the law."

"But still, why would so many people prefer to just kill Naruto than trust that Yondaime-sama knew what he was doing?"

"I don't know. My best guess is that it's like seeing a snake in the grass. You don't bother finding out if it's poisonous or not, you just keep your distance. Some people are content with Naruto being out of sight out of mind but some say that's not enough. You just never noticed before because you didn't bother to. I'm sure if you watched how people treated Naruto, you'd see just what he has to live with."

"Maybe, but I still can't help but feel that at least some of Naruto's status in school was because of his performance and not only the teachers being biased." Sakura said.

Kakashi crossed his arms. "Care to find out for sure?"

"Huh?" Sakura asked, raising an eyebrow.

"When we get back to Konoha, we'll try something out. Then you'll see whether or not you're right."

* * *

In no time the group finally did make it to Konoha, with mixed feelings but mostly positive.

Sakura saw Naruto finally perked up a bit. "You okay Naruto?"

He nodded. "Yeah, just glad to be home. Now I can show everyone Mom and Dad and finally get a little respect around here. But first I need to see my sister."

"Sister?" Sakura repeated. "You never said a word about having a sister."

"She's mostly a sister by association, no true relation. But we're siblings in every other way."

"Why didn't you ever mention her before?" Sakura asked.

"Because before this mission you probably wouldn't have cared. You never accepted my date offers, so why would you want to see her?" The whiskered blonde told her.

Sakura slowly nodded. "I see your point. But, I think I would like to see her now."

"Why?" He asked, curious not accusing.

"Why not?" She asked back.

"Before any of that happens we need to go see Hokage-sama and give in our mission report." Kakashi reminded them both.

The genin nodded and followed their sensei who took them to the hokage. Fortunately the Hokage wasn't busy so they could see him.

"Hello Team Seven. How was your mission? And who's this young lady?"

"The answer to both those questions is complex Hokage-sama. " Kakashi started, since the custom was letting the jounin sensei give the report while the genin verified parts if called on it, as they were too inexperienced to give proper reports themselves.

"The mission started out simple like any normal C-rank, but within the first day when we were just far enough away from Konoha that we could no longer see it on the horizon we were ambushed. By a pair of missing nin from Kiri called the Demon Brothers. We dispatched them with a small degree of difficulty and I sealed their heads in a scroll for the bounty upon return."

"That's good, but at that point it was no mere C-rank mission." Sarutobi commented.

Kakashi nodded. "I questioned the client and learned there had been a hit placed on him which is why he needed ninja guards for a time and was unable to afford a mission of a higher rank. I concluded this was B-rank minimum and considered ending the mission and returning home."

"Then why didn't you?" Sarutobi questioned.

"At the time I think deep down I saw this as an opportunity to show my students the realities of the career they had chosen. All three of them still had some delusions about being ninja, which I know is normal for rookie genin, but I thought this mission could snap them out of it the right way. I considered calling for assistance, but since I was trying to emphasize the importance of teamwork among each other I worried that adding another team in the mix so soon would have be counterproductive."

"This is still quite unprofessional of you Kakashi." Sarutobi warned.

"I am aware, but considering what we learned on this mission I believe this time the ends do justify the means."

Now the hokage was intrigued. "Go on."

"We made it to Wave and after a week we were ambushed by the main threat to us, the infamous Kiri nin Zabuza Momochi who had been hired by a tycoon tyrant named Gato to assassinate our client. We fought him and his apprentice, who just so happens to be this young lady right here."

Haku bowed to the old ninja before her. "Hello, I am Haku Yuki. Rest assured I am no threat. I owe Naruto my life and will no endanger those that he cares for."

Sarutobi looked at her carefully. 'She doesn't seem to have been taken prisoner in any way, so I can only assume she is here voluntarily. But for Kakashi to accept that even after knowing her allegiance means there's more to this.' "Care to explain why?"

"I was told by Zabuza-sama to kill the genin assisting Kakashi. In the fight I kept them busy and incapacitated them, but I hesitated to kill as I hate doing that. If anything the one here who was actually trying to kill someone was Sasuke, even his own teammate."

"That's an outrageous lie!" The Uchiha argued, then winced. His jaw was healed enough now that he could speak again, but the pain was still there when he did.

Haku gave him a flat look. "And I suppose using the substitution with Naruto so he'd take a hit for you was supposed to help him? And I suppose stabbing Sakura with a kunai was also to help them?"

Sarutobi looked at Sasuke. "Sasuke Uchiha are these accusations true?"

"Absolutely not."

Sakura stepped forward and pulled her shirt sleeve enough to show the stitched-up wound on her shoulder. "I can verify that those accusations are true. I saw the substitution myself and this is from his kunai."

Sasuke glared at her. "How dare you?!"

"Sasuke-kun, you were just lying to the hokage. Don't you have any idea what kind of a crime that is?"

"She's right Sasuke. Lying to the hokage is a punishable crime." Kakashi told him.

Sasuke scoffed. "Doesn't matter. He can't punish me."

"Can't?" Everyone in the room repeated, astounded he would claim that.

Sasuke nodded, looking a little untouchable but not downright arrogant. "The council would never let him."

Sarutobi narrowed his eyes and rose from his chair. "So you think I'm only allowed to do what the council grants me permission to do? And you think the council would let you get away with assaulting your own teammates in a fight?"

Sasuke didn't want to admit it or show it, but he did feel a bit intimidated by the veteran right then. "They said they'd always take my side. You'd never punish me if it means angering all of them. You'd be removed from office then."

"Oh really now? You're certain of that?" Sarutobi question rhetorically. "Why don't we see just how much authority they have over me now?"

"Actually Hokage-sama, if you're going to do that, I have one more thing to add that the council _really_ needs to see and hear." Kakashi added.

Sarutobi arched an eyebrow. "Exactly how 'really' do they need to know this?"

"It could change everything they know about Naruto and potentially make him an openly valuable member of the village." Kakashi told him.

That certainly got the old man's attention. "I'll schedule a meeting tomorrow morning. Have your team be there before they begin any missions or training exercises. As for Yuki-san here, I'll entrust Naruto to find her lodging for the night until something more permanent can be found. Until tomorrow morning, everyone must stay silent on anything Kakashi wants kept unknown until tomorrow. Understood?" The genin and Haku nodded. "Dismissed."

Team Seven left after Kakashi got them their pay for their work. He then headed home and Sasuke headed to the hospital for a complete mending of his aching mouth. The remainder sort of hung outside the Hokage Tower for a moment.

"So Naruto, does this mean I'm bunking with you?" Haku asked, only teasing a little.

"I guess. I'd hate to ask my sister to do it for me when you don't even know her." He answered.

"Can I come along?" Sakura asked. "I don't really have to be home right away. Okaa-san can wait a few more hours I suppose."

"I suppose, though I hope I don't bore anyone."

Sakura grinned. "Naruto, out of all the bad things I've ever called you, boring sure hasn't been one of them."

"Thanks, but don't expect a lot. Heck I'm not even sure I can provide dinner for more than myself tonight."

"I can order take-out if we get hungry. I've been in the mood for Chinese food lately." Sakura offered.

"Oh I haven't had that in years." Haku noted, excited by the thought of having it again.

"Well, lead the way Naruto." Sakura told him.

He nodded and the two girls followed. Along the way, both girls made sure to take note of the looks he drew from the public, Sakura especially. They saw sneers, frowns, whispers they couldn't make out, and people making an effort not to look at him or even walk away faster than a normal pace. There were some nonchalant looks, like to them Naruto was just another face in the crowd, but for them there were at least two people who looked like Naruto was offending them.

Sakura also noted that Naruto showed no signs of noticing them, and concluded it wasn't that he couldn't perceive this, but was used to it instead. 'This is normal for him? No wonder he pranks people. He needs some kind of outlet for the resentment this kind of attitude is bound to give anyone.'

After a while Naruto led them to his home, a building that while not exactly run-down certainly wasn't in prime condition either. There was no lawn or anything of the sort, and there was some faded graffiti on the side that clearly had been scrubbed away by someone and was now unreadable even if still noticeable.

"I've never been on this side of Konoha before. It's different than my neighborhood." Sakura thought aloud.

"Anyone else live here?" Haku asked.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, just two other people though. My sister and an appointed guardian for us both, but we don't share an apartment."

"Why?" Both girls asked.

"Each room here has only one small bedroom so we'd be too cramped in one. Plus when the vandals and mobs get too angry if I'm alone they leave her alone so she's safer that way." He told them.

"How often are you attacked in your own home?" Sakura asked.

"Not often, but always on my birthday. That's mainly why Jiji assigned a jounin to live in the place with us, so we'd have an instant defense when we needed it."

"How bad does it get?" Haku asked.

"Usually the worst I get is some threatening graffiti or someone trying to tamper with the water or electricity. Good thing the three of us know how to set those back to normal. When I was seven though the entire building collapsed from a fire set to it, but the next day it was rebuilt by some Anbu."

Around the corner of a building came a young girl that looked Naruto's own age. Her hair was purple and reached down to her lower back, with her bangs short and spiky almost resembling Naruto's bangs. She wore a yellow blouse that showed she was about as developed as Haku was, and a black set of sweat pants with red sandals. The girl was wiping her hands then looked and saw the newcomers.

"Naruto! You're back!" She called out, excited to see the whiskered blonde.

"Ever a doubt?" He asked her, grinning as she came up to see him.

"No, but it doesn't mean I can't worry about you when you're gone and fighting who-knows-what." The girl said when she stopped in front of him. "Who'd you bring?"

Sakura was wide-eyed to see this girl Naruto had referred to as his sister. "No way. You?"

She was looking at her old bully, Ami.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

"No way, some thugs showed up at the house just after you woke up?"

It was night and Ami had invited everyone to have dinner in her apartment, which was located right under Naruto's own. Mostly she had invited Naruto and Haku, but when she saw Sakura there was a bit of tension between the two girls. Ami looked not too surprised, not compared to Sakura of course, and asked if she had to be anywhere in a hurry. Sakura's first instinct was to lie and say yes, but she was curious about why her old bully was so close to Naruto. So she said no and Ami offered her to join, but there was a warning in her eyes that clearly said 'hurt Naruto and I'll kick your ass.'

Right now Naruto was telling the girl he called his sister about their mission in Wave as they sat around her table eating some homemade Chinese-style pork-fried rice. "Yeah, I just got up and heard some screaming and these two goons were attacking the bridge-builder's family. The boy Inari tried to fight them off with a fork until I came in and knocked them out."

"Bet that cheered the boy up if nothing else did." Ami commented, having been told Inari originally was quite an emo.

Naruto nodded. "After I was sure they were safe I ran to the bridge where Kakashi-sensei was fighting Zabuza and Sasuke was fighting Haku-chan."

"Where was Sakura?" Ami asked, a hint of an accusing look towards the pinkette.

"I was guarding the bridge-builder. Someone had to in case there was another threat." She defended.

Ami seemed to let this go. "So then what?"

"Haku-chan had Sasuke trapped in a dome of ice. I tried attacking from the outside when all of a sudden I was substituted by Sasuke and took a bunch of needles that Haku had tried to throw at him."

Ami dropped her jaw. "Seriously? He used his teammate as a shield?" She frowned a bit. "Naruto, remember that prank we put off because we thought it was going too far? Maybe it's time we used it."

"Wait, you helped him in those pranks of his?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, who do you think got him the supplies for them when stores barely sell him the stuff he needs to stay alive? Sometimes I even had to help keep the Anbu off his trail."

Sakura tilted her head. "How did you do that?"

Ami shook her head. "That's our little secret." She turned back to Naruto. "So what happened next?"

"It was the weirdest thing. I was covered in this white light and as Sakura-chan put it I looked like I was wearing some kind of angel armor."

"Angel armor?" Ami repeated. "Can you show me this?"

"I guess." Naruto said as he stood up. "I'm still having trouble making it happen on purpose. But before that, you won't believe who showed up to tell me about it."

Ami looked confused. "Wait, you spontaneously did something we've never heard about and someone who conveniently knows what it is just happened to be in the neighborhood?"

Naruto shook his head. "Not exactly. I know how this is going to sound Ami but... my parents actually came back from the dead."

Ami was momentarily silent. "Okay, let's pretend I don't doubt this. What happened and who are they?"

"That night my mom showed up and introduced herself, but I was even more skeptical than you were. Concerning you-know-what, I was in no mood to deal with strangers claiming to be family."

Ami made a look of realization. "Ah, I see."

Something clicked in Sakura's mind. 'Wait, Naruto said he and a purple-haired girl went thru something together. Is Ami that girl? Is that why he calls her his sister? What happened between these two?'

"I told her to get lost and ran, but after a while I was brought back to the bridge builders house." Naruto continued. "Kakashi-sensei tried to convince me to give her a chance, but I was too emotional to do anything so I went outside for some fresh air. Then a woman who called herself a goddess approached me."

"A goddess?" Ami repeated.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, and my parents both swore she really is one. All I know is I've never heard of a ninja that can fly, and she did do that when she left."

"Tell her what you did to that goddess." Sakura suggested. "I beat she'll find it entertaining."

Naruto looked a little bashful right then. "Well that goddess was talking trash about me, saying I couldn't hurt her even if she let me, so I headbutted her in her smug nose."

Ami dropped her chopsticks. "You headbutted a goddess?" He nodded. "Oh that's gonna cost you."

"It did. She tried to kill me, even with my mom begging her not to. In fact I think she would have if Sakura-chan hadn't jumped in at the last moment and stopped her."

Ami gave the pinkette a curious but cynical look. "She did, did she?" Even though she was looking at Sakura, she was still talking to Naruto.

Sakura nodded. "She looked like she really wanted to kill him. So I told her that if she wanted to she'd have to kill me first."

Ami looked a bit skeptical. "And why would you say that?"

Sakura immediately got the hidden question, why would she of all people defend Naruto? "Why wouldn't I? Was I supposed to let my teammate get killed?"

Ami did not look convinced by that answer but didn't ask for more. Instead she turned back to Naruto. "So where are your parents? I would have thought they'd be here with you now."

"It's kind of hard to explain." Naruto replied. "I sort of saw ghosts of my parents."

"Ghosts?" Ami repeated, finding this story even harder to believe now then it already was.

"Here I'll prove it. I actually have the ability to summon my dad. Stay seated, this is really going to surprise you." He warned then cracked his knuckles. "Come to me my Einherjar. Dad come help me." His hands glowed white then he clapped them together, just like his father had taught him to do. Everyone in the room felt the air stir and right behind Naruto Minato phased into existence.

"Hey Son, what's going on?" Minato asked as he knelt down beside the whiskered blonde.

"No way! Yondaime-sama? You're Naruto's father?" Ami said in shock but strangely not disbelief.

Minato looked to the purple-haired girl. "Hi, are you the foster sister my son told me about?"

Ami was momentarily at a loss for words, which was understandable. "Hello Yondaime-sama, I'm Ami. And yes, Naruto and I are like brother and sister. Do you need to know why?"

"No need, he already explained it to me. I'm sorry for your loss, but happy for you being nice to my son."

Ami nodded with a smile. "No problem. He's helped me a lot too over the years." She looked between the two blonde males. "Wow, if you had whiskers you two would look just alike. Are you really a ghost?"

"Sort of. Think of me as an angel. That's more accurate."

"An angel? Wow." Ami exclaimed, then looked to Naruto. "Where's your mom?"

"I can only summon my dad and only once a day. My mom will show up in a month. I'll be sure to introduce you to her then." He answered.

Ami nodded. "So do you two plan on telling the village about this tomorrow then?"

Minato nodded. "Yeah. Even if I have enemies outside Konoha that would want to kill Naruto to spite me, I'm more concerned about the enemies in the village that want to kill Naruto to 'appease' me." He tightened his fist. "If I have to I'll hiraishin my own village to protect my son."

"You would do that?" Sakura asked, having a hard time picturing the greatest of all Konoha's heroes committing mass genocide on its own people.

"If enough people deserve it then yes."

"Would you at least give people a chance to make amends. Everyone deserves the chance to make things right." Sakura added, passing a quick glance at Ami who saw it.

"I would, but for those that refuse to I'll strike without hesitation. What's the worst they can do to me? I'm already dead." Minato responded.

"What about the civilians?" Sakura asked.

"If they committed the same crime they should receive the same punishment." Minato told her.

'I better get Mom to change her mind on Naruto. I don't want her to die all because she thinks he deserves to.' Sakura thought, frightened for her mother who had never said a good word about her blonde teammate.

Minato noticed the food. "Mind if I have a bite? I was about to eat back in Valhalla."

Ami nodded. "Sure. No way I'm going to refuse the Yondaime, especially if he's my brother's father."

"Doesn't that make him your father too?" Haku joked.

Ami paled, at a loss for words, then cleared her throat and looked away. "That's not my decision."

Minato made himself comfortable and dished up. "If what I heard is anything to go by I understand your hesitation. It's not easy to replace your parents in your heart even if they aren't in your life anymore."

"I'm not sure my parents are still in my heart after all this time." Ami commented, still looking at no one.

Sakura was even more curious now on the background story regarding her and Naruto.

* * *

Dinner was quite enjoyable for everyone there. They ate, talked, joked, and reminisced. Minato shared a few stories of when he was young and even when he was dating Kushina. Haku added in some tales of her trips with Zabuza ad Naruto mentioned a few pranks of his over the years, including his famous Hokage Monument paint job. Minato was actually amused by that, and bothered that Anbu had no idea he was doing it until after he finished.

But of course it got late and everyone needed to part ways. Minato went back to Valhalla after a hearty goodbye and Naruto went back to his apartment on the upper level. Haku was allowed to join him as she had no actual residence yet and she didn't want to impose on Ami who she'd just met.

Sakura was about to leave but before she did she had to do something first. And it seemed Ami had the same thing in mind.

"Alright, you wanna tell me what the hell your little plan is?" Ami asked the pinkette hostilely. Both girls were still indoors so no one else would overhear this.

Sakura looked confused. "Plan? What makes you think I'm planning something?"

"Don't give me that. You've never been in the same room as Naruto for more than five minutes without hitting him or cursing his very existence. Yet here you were acting like you've been his friend for years. You have to be planning something Forehead. What, you trying to get the Uchiha jealous? Or maybe because you think he might get an inheritance from Yondaime-sama and will share it with you if you play nice a bit?"

Sakura gasped, offended, then frowned. "Take that back. None of that is true. I'm not planning anything."

"Yeah right." Ami scoffed. "Do you expect me to believe that from out of the blue you decided to stop treating Naruto like his head was a nut to be cracked open? Or like his heart couldn't break even if you stomped on it with both feet? I've tried telling him hundreds of times that he can do better than you and to find someone who'd treat him like a human being, and you know what he always told me?"

Sakura dropped her frown. "What?" She asked, not sure she'd like the answer.

Ami closed her eyes but still looked angry. "He asked me to actually name someone who would treat him better. And I froze. I couldn't name someone who wouldn't be just as bad as you are."

"Were." Sakura corrected. "I don't intend on being like that anymore."

"And why is that?" Ami pressed. "If you're not being selfish then what are you doing this for?"

"If I tell you, will you tell me what happened between you and Naruto?" Sakura bargained.

"That depends on what your answer is." Ami said before sitting down.

Sakura did the same and sat across from her former bully. "I can't really summarize my reasons for you. At best I could say the mission made me see a few things I've never seen before. But I swear I no longer see Naruto as I used to."

"Then what do you see him as?" Ami inquired.

"I want to see him as a friend, but I'm in no position to say he and I already are."

"What made you want that?"

"Several things. One was realizing there's more to Naruto than just the class clown. Another was how he acted on the bridge. Also when he thought only Kakashi-sensei was around he vented a few frustrations and I learned his biggest secret."

Ami leaned forward. "Does it involved the number nine?"

Sakura's eyes widened. "You know it too?"

Ami nodded. "I'm his sister. If he can't trust me who can he trust? He told me the same day he himself found out. That was a really hard day for him. He was terrified that I was going to turn against him too. I'm just glad I didn't have to commit incest to convince him otherwise."

"Umm... you two aren't blood-related so it wouldn't be incest per say." Sakura pointed out.

Ami shook her head. "Biologically it wouldn't be, but by now in our lives it would be. We see ourselves as siblings too much to try anything else. But anyway, what did that little revelation make you think?"

"It made me realize just how much I don't know about Naruto, and Kakashi-sensei filled me in on a lot of things, like how Naruto's even tried to kill himself once. Thinking about what he's gone thru and what I've done to him... I wouldn't have the right to call myself human if I believed he deserved it all."

Ami was silent for a moment taking this in and then slowly nodded. "Alright, for now I'll believe you, but if I find out you hurt my brother again you'll wish it had been him snapping instead."

Sakura nodded, reminded of the times his girl has intimidated her back in school. Then she wondered something. "Ami, is Naruto the reason you were so mean to me when we were younger? You were defending him from me without making him look weak for needing a girl to defend him?"

Ami surprised her by shaking her head. "No, that was just me being a mean kid. I didn't meet Naruto until after that. Just before I dropped out of the Academy."

"What happened when you met?" Sakura asked, hoping this time she'd get the answer.

Ami looked out the window. "I don't know if I should tell you. Naruto and I haven't even spoken of it to each other since it happened. It's one of those things you intend to take to your grave. But if this can get you to stop being such a bitch to him, FYI he doesn't call you that but the stories he tells about you make me consider you nothing less, but this can stop that from continuing then maybe I can tell you."

"I doubt it will make me want to hurt him." Sakura commented in complete seriousness.

Ami searched the pinkette's expression, trying to find any hint of selfish intent. Seeing none, she took a deep breath. "It started the last day I saw my parents."

-Flashback-

"Daddy where are we going?" A seven year old Ami asked her father as they walked to a part of Konoha she had never seen before.

"We're going to meet Mommy at this special place where we've been asked to be a part of something." He told her.

"Like what?"

"You'll see when we get there." He told her with a pat on her head.

He led her outside the village walls into one of the training grounds. The own they went to was full of small hills covered in trees, used for teaching ninja to fight on uneven terrain. A ninja with a solid white mask was waiting for them. "Good, you're on time. Your wife should be here soon with the other one."

Ami was confused but her father nodded, looking like he knew exactly what was going on so she withheld any questions.

The ninja did a silent jutsu and one of the hills parted down the middle under a tree's roots, creating a square door with a stone hallway in it lit with candles. Ami immediately felt a sense of dread and stepped back, only to feel her father grab her reassuring. "It's okay Ami, there's nothing to be afraid of. There's nothing bad down there."

Still afraid but trusting her father she followed him inside while the ninja waited outside. She was led into a room that was larger than the room she had all her classes in, the only room she could compare this one too. There were torches on the walls instead of candles and a large table in the center covered with a white cloth. Behind the tablet there was a demonic-looking warrior statue, like an idol to some fiendish deity but one Ami was completely unfamiliar with. If she had to call it something she'd call it the Shinigami. Four swords were on the wall, two on each side, and above each of them was a shinigami mask.

"Why are we here Daddy?" Ami asked, shivering not just from fear. The room actually went a little cold.

"We're about to make the world a safer place Ami." He told her, and for some reason she didn't feel reassured this time by him.

After a moment they heard footsteps behind them, and Ami saw her mother heading her way with a young Naruto coming along. 'Why's he here?' She asked, recognizing him from class but like others she tended to think he couldn't be far away enough for her tastes.

"So my family's down here?" Naruto asked her mom.

Ami's mom nodded. "Yes, they wanted to meet you here because they wanted to show you something that couldn't be moved."

Ami looked around, no seeing another person. 'What's Mom talking about? No one's here.'

Excited, Naruto practically ran into the room, seeing the only two people there. "Are you two my family?"

"Sorry Naruto, but that's my husband and daughter." Ami's mom corrected.

Naruto looked around too but saw no one else. "But then, where's my family?" He asked, facing the purple-haired woman.

"Your family..." Ami's mom said right before she took a step back and then swung her leg to forcefully plant her foot directly in his face, making him fall on his back and skid across the floor. "... is in Hell where they belong. And you'll be going there too soon enough."

Ami involuntarily screamed at this unexpected sight and almost ran to check on the injured blonde, but was stopped by her dad who was gripping her a little too tightly for comfort. "What's going on?"

"I told you, we're going to making the world a safer place." Her father said, refusing to let her go. "By destroying the greatest threat there is to it."

"What? Naruto may be stupid but he's not dangerous."

"Oh he's dangerous. He's evil incarnate." Her mother told her, sounding proud for knocking a seven year old unconscious.

Four people appeared, donning the shinigami masks and taking a sword. Ami never saw their faces, and she was really afraid now. Naruto looked like he was trying to get back up, but one of the ninja chloroformed him quickly, rendering him unconscious.

"That may not work long. He is a monster after all." Ami's mom stated.

"It doesn't have to work long, it only has to work long enough." The ninja reassured her, then looked at Ami. "What about her?"

"She's harmless compared to that thing. Save it for if it tries to reawaken." Her father stated.

Now Ami was really afraid. "What's going on? Why are you hurting him? Why are we here?"

"You'll see soon enough child." The masked ninja said as he approached her.

Ami tried to move away but to her shock her father actually pushed her towards him. "Daddy?" She pleaded as the ninja grabbed her.

"Just be calm Ami. A normal human is needed for this to balance out the demon chakra. Be a big girl and just keep your eyes closed. It will all be over soon." He told her as another ninja handed her mother a large sum of ryo.

Ami gasped as she realized what had just happened, her parents had just sold her and Naruto to people who intended to kill them both.

-End Flashback-

"Kami-sama no!" Sakura said in horror.

Ami nodded and trembled in anger, looking like she really needed to break something right then and there. "Yes, my parents gave me away to be part of some human sacrifice to be killed along with Naruto so they could use his power for themselves."

"What kind of parent would do such a thing?" Sakura asked.

"The kind that loves being rich and powerful more than they love their child that's what." Ami answered with venom in her voice. "If it weren't for the arrival of the Anbu and Hokage-sama Naruto and I would be dead right now. The guys performing the ritual and my parents were executed on the spot, but Naruto and I had to be in the hospital for a while, sharing a room. We were both a little traumatized by the experience, me more than him, and we were both in critical danger of bleeding to death from cuts they gave us when the ritual started."

"Is that why you and Naruto are so close? You've been thru a great disaster together?" Sakura asked.

"Mostly, but it was the aftermath that really sealed it for us." The purple-haired girl confirmed, sounding forlorn right then. "I was understandably quite upset by what happened to me, what seven year old wouldn't be? I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't do anything except cry and wallow in misery. My own parents and arranged for me and Naruto to die and I had no idea why, though now I think I do know why."

Sakura slowly nodded in understanding. "You think they were really trying to do something with you-know-what?"

Ami briefly looked mad. "Well they sure weren't throwing us a birthday party." She took a deep breath before she got out of hand. "I don't know what exactly they were trying to accomplish and frankly I'm done caring. All I know is Naruto helped me return to normal after that. I wanted to kill myself, but Naruto stopped me."

Sakura looked confused. "Wait, I heard he's tried to kill himself before a few times. Why would he stop you from doing the same? If anything he should have sympathized with you."

Ami shrugged. "My guess is seeing someone else try it sparked the desire to live in him again. I tried to cut myself but he stopped me, then told me about one bad time where the villagers tried to crucify him and when he was finally free he tried to cut himself but failed to bleed fast enough. I was shocked because at the time I couldn't believe someone would do that to a child, but he showed me the scars. He told me a few other times where the villagers had come close to killing him but failed and he tried to finish the job but failed too."

Ami shed a tear. "That day I realized the kid we pretended didn't exist had feelings just like us, and he wanted to stop existing even more than we wanted it." A few more tears were shed and Sakura realized she was crying a lot too. "I... I apologized for being rude to him and asked him not to do that anymore. To live, not die. He said he would if I would promise him two things, that I wouldn't try to kill myself again and that he could actually be my friend. Somehow that touched me and I agreed. As soon as we were released from the hospital we moved in here. Actually we used to share his apartment until last year when I wanted a little more privacy and moved down here."

"Wow." was all Sakura could say.

Ami nodded. "I also had to drop out of the Academy because of this. Psychologists say I developed a kind of mental block that's rendered my chakra control useless and my aim terrible. Some sort of fear of ninja I guess that prevents me from becoming one, so I stopped trying."

"So that's why I haven't seen you around since we were kids." Sakura commented.

Ami nodded and looked at Sakura firmly. "Don't think that means I don't know what you've been doing all this time. Naruto tells me everything, and even if he ignored your past attitude, I didn't." Now Sakura felt a little nervous. "I may not be able to keep you away from him, but Naruto will be hokage someday and I'm not going to let people like you stop him from succeeding."

"I don't want to stop him. If Naruto can be hokage then he should have that right." Sakura interjected.

Ami looked intrigued but skeptical. "Tell me, do you think he can become hokage?"

"In time, yeah he can. As he is now he has no chance. He doesn't have the strength, knowledge, or experience to back it up. If he works at it for real, then yeah it is possible for him to become hokage in time." Sakura answered sincerely.

"I could probably interrogate you more on this, but it's late and I'm tired." Ami said as she stood up.

Sakura got up too. "I should probably be going home anyway. But I swear I'm not what you think I am."

"Prove it." Ami said before she walked away.

Sakura just quietly let herself out and headed home. 'How can I?'


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

Morning came and Team Seven had gathered at their usual meeting place, the bridge in Training Ground Seven. Naruto greeted his teammates as usual and Sakura kindly greeted him back. Joining him was Haku, who didn't really have anywhere else to be.

Sasuke went up to Naruto and handed him a framed picture. "This is my father, Fugaku Uchiha. You better be able to summon him this time dobe."

"I'll try, but remember what Dad said, I can't summon every dead man." Naruto said before getting a good look at the man in the photograph. "I just hope he's more cheery in person." He closed his eyes and tried to repeat his summoning. "Fugaku Uchiha, I beseech thee to come to me."

Like in Wave, nothing happened.

Sasuke was pissed. "Are you doing this on purpose? Give me my father back dobe!" He threatened as he got right in his teammate's face.

"Sasuke-kun stop!" Sakura said before trying to pull him away. "Remember what Yondaime-sama said, not every dead person can be brought back."

Haku nodded. "Yeah, he said only those already in Heaven or ghosts, but no one in Hell or already reincarnated."

Sasuke was not soothed. "If anyone deserves the right to come back it's my family."

"I'm sorry Sasuke, but I can't bring him back." Naruto said honestly, only to be punched in the gut.

"Sasuke-kun! Why did you do that?" Sakura asked, surprised.

Sasuke huffed. "This loser's obviously not summoning my father on purpose." Haku punched him in the stomach in retaliation, making him wince but he pretended it didn't hurt.

"Sasuke-kun, remember that he couldn't summon Kakashi-sensei's father either. And back in Wave he couldn't summon every dead person the locals asked him to either. I really don't think he's doing this on purpose."

Naruto frowned back at the self-proclaimed avenger. "You really think I'm that petty? I'm an orphan too Sasuke, you're not the only one! I know full well how much you want to see him again and if I could bring him back I would! Maybe he can't come back! Maybe your father is one of those dead guys that are off limits to me! Did you think about that?"

Sasuke glared at the blonde. "Are you saying my father is in Hell? He deserves to be in Heaven more than_ your_ father does!"

Fortunately this was one of those times when Kakashi had good timing. "Yo team."

"You're late!" Sakura yelled, this time a moderate volume. Naruto and Sasuke were silent but still looked ready to rip each other apart.

"That's because we have a meeting and I didn't want you three distracted by training beforehand. We need to be at the Hokage Tower in fifteen minutes. The two councils want a word with Naruto. So remember Naruto to be respectful. Just because you have the Yondaime on your side doesn't mean you can go talking down to others."

"Fine, but if they start it I won't hesitate to return the gesture." The blond told his sensei.

"Fair enough. Let's go team. And Sasuke, try to be nicer to Hokage-sama this time." Kakashi added before directing his team where they had to go.

* * *

Council meetings were not usually pleasant things to be a part of. There weren't always assembled because someone had a complaint and needed to bitch about it, but more times then people cared to admit such a thing had happened.

Meetings were initially done once a week on the last day of the week. Most of the time it was a formality so that the Hokage could hear of new business that needed to be addressed. Business such as if anything was affecting the shinobi or possibly going to affect the shinobi, and whether or not things were getting in the way of public life or if some parts of village maintenance needed attention at the moment. General politics and city management basically, the kind of things no one really gets excited about.

But of course, some meetings were more interesting than others, and this would prove to be one of them.

Sarutobi sat in his usual spot, an elevated seat behind a podium to help symbolize his authority. To his left and right were long tables arranged in a U formation, placing him in the central point. To his left were the clan heads and Koharu, his former teammate and elder adviser. To his right were the civilian representatives and Homura, his other teammate and elder adviser.

"Everyone, I called you here today because I have been informed of something that I'd dare call paradigm-shifting." Sarutobi started. "Before I say more, I must remind you all that everything said in these meetings is confidential and the subject of this one is no exception. So no matter how tempted any of you are to share this discovery, I am ordering each and every one of you to remain silent on the matter until permitted by myself otherwise. If even a whisper of this gets out I will learn who is responsible and execute them myself without trial, status be damned."

"You can't do that." One civilian objected.

"You are here to inform me and advise me, not to control me. What I say is final, and if you don't like it, that's your problem. Be thankful I am no tyrant and let you have a say in this village when I could just as easily say the only opinion I need to consider is my own."

Elsewhere, a muscle-bound man in Kumo sneezed.

"Hokage-sama, what you are telling us is standard protocol for these meetings. Something we are all expected to follow even without you insisting on it or reminding us it exists. Not to second-guess you, but why do you feel a need to reinforce this right now?" Shibi asked.

"Mostly to show you all how serious I am about this rule being followed, and now to remind upstarts that may think they're above the law that they are not." Sarutobi answered, looking that the civilian who previously objected as if to say 'yeah I mean you'. "Council status gives you a voice in the village, it is not a permit for any sort of behavior. You have no more rights than the rest of the people in this village."

"But what about them?" Mebuki Haruno asked, pointing to the shinobi council. "They have extra privileges so we should be entitled to some as well to balance things out."

"They have extra privileges only because they have extra responsibilities and they directly defend the village in times of conflict. If we were to face an enemy invasion today what would you be able to do to defend the village that they cannot?" Sarutobi challenged.

"We keep the civilians calm when they are taken to the security shelters." One civilian answered.

"The Anbu do the same thing. You are not irreplaceable." Hiashi bluntly told them.

"Enough, let's not get sidetracked further." Sarutobi cut in before a real argument could break out. "Now, in order to properly inform you all of what I have to tell you, I will have one of our genin squads come in and tell you all what happened on their latest mission. Rest assured this information is vital to understanding the big news."

He pushed a button signaling to those outside the room they could enter now, and the door opened, revealing Team Seven. The reactions were mixed giving the simultaneous appearance of Sasuke and Naruto but no one said a word about it.

"Kakashi Hatake, please tell us what we need to know." Sarutobi told the jounin.

"With pleasure Hokage-sama. My team and I were sent to Wave Country for a mission that increased in rank as it progressed due to the client lying about the threats involved. After about a week into it we were forced into a showdown with missing nin Zabuza Momochi, who had been hired by the main threat to the client. During the fight, a subordinate of Zabuza managed to hit Naruto with a high number of senbon that I presume hit his tenketsu in a specific but not intentional way."

At news of Naruto being hurt several council members smiled, some subtle and some shameless. Naruto saw this and ignored it, knowing he would soon be the one smiling himself. Kakashi saw this and was deeply bothered, but knew he couldn't call them out on it yet. Haku was the same, but Sasuke was disinterested and took no notice.

Sakura on the other hand did notice and was appalled by this, moreso when she saw her mother among them.

"We don't fully understand what happened or how, but this action had a result. A rather strange and highly unexpected result." Kakashi said, knowing several council members were hoping he would give them undeniable proof of Naruto's demon identity and allow them to insist on his execution no matter what. "With Naruto's chakra network messed up, he somehow gave out a sort of... angelic chakra."

"Angelic?" Several council members repeated, some more skeptical than others.

"There is nothing angelic about this boy. A tapeworm infected with smallpox is more of an angel than he is. And more welcome in this village too." Mebuki sneered.

"Mom!" Sakura objected, surprising her parent. "I was there, I saw it myself. It was angelic in every sense of the word."

"He was obviously tricking you Sakura." Mebuki said with complete certainty.

"If that were true why would he wait until then? If he really is the monster you think he is wouldn't he have tried to brainwash me years ago instead of putting up with my refusals? What monster lets himself be bullied by a girl?" Sakura asked.

"You don't know what he is." Mebuki warned.

"Oh, I know exactly what he is. It's you that doesn't know Mom."

"If I may continue." Kakashi butted in, silencing the family argument. "We're not exactly sure what this angelic chakra can do, but his use of it alerted two people of important note to come find Naruto. One of them... was Kushina Uzumaki, Naruto's mother."

"But she's dead." Inoichi claimed calmly.

"And that thing has no mother." One civilian added harshly.

"Quiet or I'll find you guilty of breaking my law and punish you accordingly." Sarutobi threatened, silencing the civilian who didn't look happy. "Now, I have shown you all his birth certificate and bloodwork to confirm his parentage. Why do some of you still insist he is the opposite of what DNA itself says?"

"Because everyone with half a brain cell knows you fabricated all that to make us be sympathetic to that.. creature." Mebuki hissed.

"Mom!" Sakura all but yelled. "Naruto is a human being! What proof do you have that he isn't?"

"It's common sense." The older Haruno insisted.

"What _proof_ do you have?" Sakura repeated with much more demand in her voice.

Mebuki didn't answer right away, trying to think of the best way to phrase her response. Before she could, Sarutobi threw himself back into the conversation. "We are not here to discuss this. We are here to learn about the strange new skills Naruto has shown. I order everyone here to remain silent until Kakashi has said everything he needs to say." He then turned to the jounin. "Go on Kakashi, before more people decide to ignore my orders."

"As I was saying Kushina Uzumaki actually came to speak with us, especially Naruto. Naturally I was skeptical, but she knew things only the real Kushina could know and she even used chakra chains. The question was how was she still alive, but she said she wasn't. She was in fact a genuine angel, come down to earth to check on her son. Which reinforces the claim that Naruto's new chakra was in some way angelic."

"Kushina said Naruto has angelic chakra in him, though she is unsure how since living people are not supposed to have it." Kakashi continued, grateful no one was interrupting. Some people looked like they wanted to, but were keeping quiet. "Even weirder, Kushina says there are two types of angels. Female angels such as herself are called Valkyries, which male angels such as Yondaime-sama are called Einherjar. Despite the obvious, Kushina said Naruto somehow has the powers of a valkyrie as opposed to an einherjar."

"Wait, Naruto has the power of a female angel?" Sarutobi asked, voicing the question before anyone else could. "Can you give us a demonstration of this in some way?"

"I think I know the best way to do so." Naruto said. "One of a valkyrie's skills is summoning einherjar that they make pacts with. Meaning I can summon male angels who are my friends, but only once a day. I'll show you one of them." He cracked his knuckles for a second. "Come to me my Einherjar. Dad come help me." His hands glowed white then he clapped them together.

The next thing anyone knew, standing next to Naruto was Minato Namikaze, stunning everyone who didn't already know about this.

Minato looked around and crossed his arms. "I had a feeling I'd be brought here for this. So tell me, who here decided to do the exact opposite of what I asked Konoha to do?"

"Yondaime-sama? Is it really you?" Homura asked.

"I'm the one asking the questions here old man. Now tell me before I get mad, who here decided they know seals better than I do and therefore can determine whether or not I did my job right?"

"What do you mean? We've known all along that your seal did it's intended job." One civilian responded.

"Oh? Then tell me what it was I intended it to do." Minato requested.

"You made it so the demon became mortal so if we kill that boy the demon will die once and for all." The same civilian stated.

Sasuke looked confused. 'What are they talking about? They make it sound like the Kyuubi that Yondaime-sama slayed is still alive somehow.'

Minato crossed his arms. "And you're absolutely certain of that?"

"What other possible explanation could there be?" Mebuki asked, making Sakura frown.

"If you're so sure of that, then answer two questions for me." Minato insisted. "One, why would I have insisted that Naruto be seen as a hero if I wanted him killed?"

"You did no such thing. That's just some garbage Sandaime-sama made in order to keep the vermin alive." One civilian bitterly stated like he could not be more accurate.

"You were delirious. The sealing was killing you so you didn't know what you were saying." One civilian countered.

"Were either of you there? Did you witness such a thing?" Minato pressed.

"Umm... no."

"Then who are you two to say what is true about that night or what state of mind I was in?"

"This clearly is not the real Yondaime. The demon is toying with us using a puppet." Mebuki rudely insisted, only to get a trikunai thrown right by her head that barely missed but impacted the wall. Next thing she knew was he was behind her with a kunai poking into the back of her neck.

"Could a puppet do this?" He asked, then left her and retrieved his trikunai before going back to his son, leaving the blonde woman trying to still her racing heart while the rest in the room realized this man really was Minato Namikaze.

"So Naruto has the ability to bring people back to life?" Danzou asked, quite interested in the advantage this could give him.

"No, I'm not alive. I'm sort of like a ghost right now. Dead but capable of interacting with others. In a way, what Naruto does is a purified version of the Edo Tensei, and it doesn't apply to just anyone. It can only be used on dead men and only those that haven't gone to Hell." Minato explained.

Sasuke frowned. 'With the way he said that it sounds like he's saying my father is in Hell. Absurd. My clan deserves to be in Heaven more than anyone else.'

"So Naruto is more of an angel than a demon." Hiashi stated.

A civilian scoffed. "Preposterous. That boy is-" He was cut off by Minato using the Hiraishin again only this time hitting him in the head with his fist, knocking him out.

"Now here's my second question, if Naruto dying was my intention, then why wouldn't I have chosen someone who already was going to die? A convict sentenced to death? Or even a sick infant that likely wouldn't have survived anyway? Why would I have used a perfectly healthy baby if I wanted what you claim I wanted."

"You did that so we could make Naruto into a weapon." Danzou claimed. "These people here are blinded by fear and paranoia Yondaime-same They do not know the truth because they do not wish to see it, but I do. You used a healthy child because you wanted us to make a weapon out of Naruto."

Minato frowned, deeply offended by that. "What I wanted was for my son to be seen as a hero."

"And he will be, once he's served his purpose."

Minato cracked his knuckles at his side, restraining himself. "Naruto's 'purpose' as you put it is to live and protect this village. How he does so is his choice to make, not yours, not the councils, not even Sarutobi's or mine. His and his alone."

"With all due respect Namikaze-san, once you died you lost the right to have any say over what happened in this boy's life. The needs of the living outweigh the wants of the dead." Danzou said, trying to sound diplomatic but coming across as rude.

Minato was fuming. "My wife and I gave up our lives to protect the people in this village including all of you, and we asked for only one thing. And you all have the nerve to say our dying wish wasn't worth the breath we said it with?"

"If you honestly believed we would treat the host of the Kyuubi as anything except a demon host, then yes, it was. A dying wish from a naive child who didn't deserve to be hokage, unlike some of us here. And therefore, not worth following." Danzou stated firmly.

The next thing Danzou knew, he had a tri-kunai in his throat and Minato appeared before him and used it to slice his head off, then slapped an anti-chakra seal on his chest in case this old guy had some sort of trick designed to go off upon his death. The process happened so fast Danzou didn't have time to use one of his hidden sharingans.

Suddenly the head and body decayed and became two piles of mud.

"A clone." Minato noted dourly then faced Sarutobi. "Unless the rules have changed since my death, it's illegal for council members to send clones to meetings."

Sarutobi nodded. "That is correct. Sending a clone instead of yourself is against protocol. It is an insult to the rest of us who appear here in person, like you're saying you're too good or your time is too valuable to waste being here. Not to mention it implicates that you knew ahead of time something was going to happen that would have endangered you, or implicates that you are simply paranoid and therefore your judgment in these matters is highly questionable."

"So he broke the in-person law as well as the law you made regarding my son. Sandaime-sama, I expect you to issue a death warrant on that old man." Minato declared.

"You can't-" Homura tried to interject, but was silenced by the Namikaze's killing intent.

"I'm done warning people about keeping their mouths shut. Now I'm acting. And what I'm doing is legal."

"He's right." Sarutobi agreed. "Danzou warranted a dismissal from his council seat by sending a clone in his place and he broke the law regarding speaking of Naruto's condition so he is supposed to be sentenced to death. As of this moment, there is a kill-on-sight order on Danzou Shimura and can be carried out by anyone without punishment to the one who carries it out. Anyone abiding Danzou will receive a kill-on-sight order on themselves as well."

That silenced the room, some feeling dread and some feeling glad regarding the fate of the cripple who kept trying to control more than he was entitled to.

"So Naruto, care to tell us anything yourself?" Sarutobi asked, hoping to get back to the primary topic of discussion.

"Not much to say that hasn't been said. I have no idea where this power came from and I'm having trouble recalling it, but I've got Dad here to help teach me when he can and Mom said she can come see me once a month to do the same." He explained.

"Wait, why can your father help you out so much but not your mother?" Tsume asked. "If this power of yours is held only by female angels, wouldn't it make more sense for a woman to train you more?"

"The main reason is I can't summon my mom. I can only summon Dad and other dead men. No women." Naruto told her.

"Can you prove this by summoning someone else?" A civilian asked calmly. "Not to doubt you, but if you can summon someone who can prove something that would be impossible for you to already know, that would prove you are not merely creating puppets that look like dead people."

"I can try. Any suggestions?"

"I'd like to see my brother." Hiashi asked.

"Do you have a picture? I can't summon if I don't know what he looks like." Naruto asked.

"Not on me no, but I will remember that." The Hyuuga head said.

"C'mon Hiashi you don't need a picture. He was your identical twin for crying out loud." Tsume reminded him.

"We didn't look exactly alike Tsume-san, and I'd rarely not have my face in his mind when he summons a spirit. For all we know he could accidentally summon my own soul out of my body instead." Hiashi replied.

"How about my father?" Sakura offered. "My mom and I should be able to tell if it's really him or not."

"No! I will not have that thing insult my husband's memory!" Mebuki declared.

Sakura ignored this and pulled out a photo of her father, showing she was already prepared for this, and handed it to Naruto. "His name was Kizashi Haruno. It's worth a try." 'Oh I hope this works. I would like to say hi to him.'

"Wow, and I always thought you got your pink hair from your mom's side of the family." Naruto said before he tried to summon the dead spirit. "Kizashi Haruno, I beseech thee to come to me."

A little bit of mist began to gather, and in it the figure of a man began to form. In mere moments the ghost of Kizashi was there, looking confused, while the council looked surprised to see a genuine ghost before them.

"Huh? Where am I?" The pink-haired man asked.

"Kizashi?" Mebuki asked in disbelief.

"Mebuki?" He asked her. "Am I in Konoha?"

"Dad?" Sakura asked, getting his attention.

"Sakura?" He held out his hand but it passed right thru her. "You've gotten so big since I last saw you."

"This can't be real." Mebuki said to herself, not shouting but still audible to most. "This boy _can't_ be part angel. He just _can't_ be."

"Apparently he is." The civilian next to her countered. "Unless you'd rather believe your husband went to hell and is controlled by demons now."

"Dad, you've been summoned by my teammate Naruto as a test of his abilities." Sakura explained, and Kizashi glanced at Naruto for a moment. "If you really are my dad, what was the last thing you said to me?" Sakura asked before he could say anything to her blonde teammate. Kizashi had died on a mission just before she had started the academy, but not before making her a promise. One she never forgot even though she learned he could never fulfill it once dead.

Kizashi smiled. "You were just about to start your first day of school. I was supposed to be home the day before. I promised you that I would be there to drop you off and pick you up, and if you had been a good girl you would have gotten ice cream from your favorite shop. Though we both know you were going to get it regardless."

Sakura's eyes got teary. "Dad..." She tried to hug him, but went right thru him instead. "Sorry." He wrapped his ethereal arms around her, and even though she couldn't feel his touch, she was comforted by the message. "I missed you." She whispered.

Mebuki watched this silently, not sure what to think.

Sasuke frowned. 'Sure, he'll summon her unimportant father, but he'll refuse to summon mine. This dobe needs to learn some respect.'

"Does that please the council? Or do I have to summon even more?" Naruto asked.

"No, I think that will suffice for now." Sarutobi asked. "And remember everyone what I said earlier, not one word of this is to mentioned to ANYONE and anyone who reveals this will be punished as a traitor."

"But Hokage-sama, people will want to know that they can speak with their dead family again." One civilian pleaded.

"Yeah, and if people get that opportunity it would help them learn that Naruto is not what they think he is." Inoichi said, causing a few civilians to frown.

"We're not wrong. He is what we say he is and this is desecration of the dead."

"You really think him allowing me to see my daughter is a crime?" Kizashi asked, separating himself from Sakura. He then looked at Mebuki. "You surely don't agree with them anymore do you?"

Mebuki remained silent, not sure what to say.

"Enough." Sarutobi said. "My word is final. Naruto is still getting used to his newfound abilities and I don't want his time taken away from training all so people can force him to take up work as a medium instead. Also I will not have people use this as yet another excuse to wish him dead."

"If anyone here wants to talk to a dead relative, just ask but be discreet about it." Naruto told everyone. "Also, those who do, I'd appreciate some form of payment when you ask."

"You'd dare charge us for this?" A civilian asked, offended by the notion.

"Why not? People pay money for seances so why not pay for a more direct approach? Also like Jiji said I cannot neglect my training either so this way people will be less likely to take up all my time." Naruto explained.

"Smart." Kizashi told the whiskered kid.

"This is extortion." Mebuki proclaimed.

"You just got a free sample. What do you care?" Naruto challenged.

"Enough fighting. Is there anything else worth discussing Kakashi?" Sarutobi cut in.

"Only the fact Sasuke needs a bit of an attitude check on respecting authority."

"What do you mean? Sasuke surely has done nothing wrong." A civilian defended.

'This is going to be a long meeting.' Sarutobi complained.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

"You ready Sakura?" Kakashi asked when the meeting was over.

"Yes." The pinkette said with a nod. 'I wonder how this will really go.'

"What are you two doing?" Naruto asked.

"I made an arrangement for Sakura that we need to keep. You and Sasuke are free for the time being. Just keep out of trouble."

Naruto nodded. "Alright, I'll go try out a few of those things Mom told me to do. Want to join Haku-chan?"

The ice-user nodded. "Sure, then you can show me around the village."

"Actually, you should have Sakura-chan do that." Naruto advised. "I don't know that many places to go."

"I don't mind." The pinkette offered. "I'll just show up at your place when I can." Haku nodded.

Sasuke just brewed in silence, looking like he never planned to smile again in his life. Kakashi saw his attitude and frowned. "It's your own fault Sasuke. You better accept that."

-Flashback-

"Sasuke Uchiha, reports say that on your last mission you directly attacked a teammate with a weapon. And in my office yesterday you openly stated that you believe I am a mere figurehead and puppet to the council. Care to explain where you got these ideas?" Sarutobi asked Sasuke after the issue regarding Naruto was covered.

The civilian council caught his subtle glance at the question, realizing he was implicating them as responsible for filling Sasuke's head with ideas of who was the true authority in Konoha.

"I'm an Uchiha. We created the law in Konoha, therefore as the last one in Konoha the law is whatever I say it is." Sasuke claimed, sounding as if he honestly believed that. "And the council _is_ more powerful than you. Your role is just a token office meant to spare them of their work."

Sarutobi held his temper with much effort. "And where exactly did you get that idea?"

"All the civilian members told me. As well as your own teammates."

Sarutobi gave the civilians and his old comrades a cross look, making it very clear he intended to have a few choice words with them that they weren't going to enjoy, as well as some severe punishment for undermining his power indirectly. Then he looked back at the last Uchiha, giving the sort of look you'd expect to see on a frustrated parent running low on patience. "Tell me Sasuke, do you consider yourself a smart boy?"

"Yes, I'm a prodigy."

"Is Konoha a ninja village or a civilian village?" Sarutobi asked.

"A ninja village obviously."

"Do you consider yourself a shinobi or civilian?" Sarutobi added.

"A shinobi obviously." Sasuke answered, wondering what the old man was getting at.

"Would you ever let a civilian have authority or rank over you?"

Sasuke shook his head. "No way. That's just stupid."

"So then, why in your prodigal wisdom do you accept the idea that the civilian council know more about how a shinobi village operates than the ninja do? Or have top authority in such a village?"

Sasuke started to speak, but found he couldn't. That was the question that really stopped him from saying anything.

"Well, we're waiting for an answer." Sarutobi said, with a hidden smirk on his face. Sasuke tried to think of something, but nothing could come up that would suggest anything but a ninja being in charge of the village. "Boy, it appears that despite your genius you fell prey to propaganda. Your youth and inexperience might have excused you at one point, but by now you should be aware that civilians only hold so much power in Konoha, and I hold the majority. For you to never question it, for you to stand here before us telling us the ninja are servitude to the civilians, that makes me wonder your mental competence and loyalty."

"Hokage-sama be reasonable. There's no need to call him unfit." One civilian tried to defend.

"Why should I listen to you? According to him you all are the ones responsible for him believing this in the first place. To me that sounds like a clear attempt to undermine my authority, tricking our genin into believing I am but a figurehead and they must listen to you first and foremost. For that reason alone I can have all of you imprisoned for the rest of your lives for the crime of treason."

"You can't do that!" All of the civilians objected.

"And why not? What exactly stops me? Please do tell me." Sarutobi replied fearlessly.

"We won't let you." One of the more arrogant members declared.

All the ninja there looked either amused or offended by the claim. Sarutobi, one of the amused ones made a not-so-subtle hand gesture, and moments later the civilians and elder advisors found themselves unable to move.

"Thank you Shikaku-san." The hokage said to the shadow wielder, and continued to smile in amusement at the struggling civilians. "I'm curious, how exactly did you plan to stop me from making you comply? Surely you didn't think I'd refuse to act against such insubordination. Even you all can't be _that_ arrogant."

"We have jobs elsewhere and friends in high places. Hurt us and we'll make this entire village's economy suffer." Mebuki threatened, much to her daughter and husband's shock.

Sarutobi still looked unfrightened. "We have no short supply of civilians. Your jobs can be refilled by others, even if they have to be trained for the role. Besides, your friends in high places as you put it might change their minds after some time with Ibiki."

The civilians all panicked as they realized their biggest mistake, other than assuming they held more power than they actually did. Their great mistake after that was assuming that ninja would never attack a civilian, even if the civilian deserved it. Many laws had been put in place for civilian safety, and apparently the council had gotten a bit too comfortable behind that shield.

"All of you will be detained for a yet-to-be determined amount of time, and will not be released until I directly say so. I see any attempts to get out early, both prisoner and the one assisting in the attempt will be put to immediate death as a warning to others." Sarutobi said, seeing their scared expressions. "Also, for the time being I will deny you all visitors to give you all time to think about why you deserve this."

"Hokage-sama?" Kizashi asked. "If it's not too much to ask, can I at least visit my wife just once? I assure you as a ghost I am incapable of doing anything to go around your orders."

Sarutobi thought it over. "I suppose I can't exactly give orders to the dead now can I? But that also means I can't give permission to the dead either. In that case I believe only Naruto can. If he approves of something that doesn't go against the law I suppose it's out of my jurisdiction."

Anbu came and bound the civilians so Shikaku didn't have to keep them restrained anymore. Some had a few nasty words to say, both to Sarutobi and Naruto as they were taken away. Mebuki pleaded to Sakura to somehow save her, but Sakura didn't respond. Homura and Koharu were taken with them, since they had been implicated as well. Sarutobi was going to personally see to them later.

"Sasuke Uchiha." The hokage said once the civilians were gone, regaining the aforementioned boy's attention. "Are you still convinced that the civilian council is the real body of power here?" Sasuke chose not to say anything, but he looked quite uncertain. "It is apparent that despite your claim of genius you have not used it properly. And with your belief that you can defy me and value the status of the council over my own shows that your loyalty is questionable and quite likely circumstantial. As a result, you are going to be made an example of."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked, not sure what to expect but already not liking it.

"The fact is you are likely not the only young one the civilian council has tried to undermine me thru. You are simply the first one to admit that you've been led to believe they are more powerful than they actually are. And unfortunately you've never questioned the validity or sensibility of those claims. Therefore, to teach you a lesson and to alert anyone else who might think the same, I am putting you on probation for no less than six months. For the time being, you are not a ninja."

"What?" Sasuke said, not expecting that.

"You were being used by the civilians Sasuke. Clearly they were trying to mold you for a specific goal, one I have a very good guess for it. Until you can prove that your loyalty is to the village and not just one body within it, you will not be allowed to be a ninja. Plus I don't like your claim that as an Uchiha you believe the law is whatever you say it is. In case you have another misconception, the Uchiha were the police force, not the law makers. Your clan doesn't create the law, they merely enforce and uphold it. Your job,_ genin_, is to follow orders, not give them. Am I clear?"

Sasuke balled his fist and clenched his teeth. But even though his pride cried out to fight back against what he considered unfair, he knew that this was not the time to fight. "Yes sir." He said, acknowledging that he understood that he would be on probation for six months, and that he was a 'civilian'.

"Good, I believe that this-"

"May I ask if during my probation I may continue to train?"

Sarutobi frowned at being interrupted, but the request was a simple one, so long as someone kept an eye on him. "Yes, nothing will forbid you from that. You will not be allowed to partake of missions though for the time, except D-ranks that can be done solo to provide you a means of income. Your spot on your genin team will have to be filled until such time you've proved you understand the realities of how the ninja system works. I believe the newcomer to the village that was brought here courtesy of your team, one Haku-san, would be the best choice for that. Is that a problem Kakashi?"

"It will be an adjustment, but we'll try to make it work." The jounin replied. Haku nodded, hoping she didn't hinder the team.

"Good, now if it pleases everyone I think we've discussed enough here and have given Danzou too much of a head start to evade us. Meeting adjourned." He said, ending the meeting. "By the way, if it's not too much trouble can Minato assist us in this?"

The Yondaime nodded. "Sure, I don't mind. Just as long as people don't see me."

-End Flashback-

"You better think about what you were told Sasuke. You'll have plenty of time to now." Kakashi stated just before he and Sakura headed off. Naruto had no idea what to add and so he walked off silently followed by Haku. After a while, so did Sasuke.

* * *

"Excuse me?" Kakashi said when he entered a classroom that was devoid of all but one person. That person was a chuunin teacher much like Iruka, only his name was Inaba. He had taught Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke last year. He had brown hair and green eyes but overall he had one of the most normal appearances people could have.

"Yes?" Inaba said, wondering why the jounin came to him, and he noticed accompanying him was Naruto. Inaba gave the boy a light frown, and Naruto looked bothered.

"I hope it's not too much trouble, but I had a favor to request." Kakashi said. "I'm hoping to see how much my student here has learned since graduation, and I thought taking a test here would be a good way. Can you provide him a test then grade it to see if he's gotten any better?"

Inaba looked irritated, then looked back at Naruto and got a look in his eyes. "I suppose so, but he has to finish it in ten minutes. I've got a schedule to keep you know. Also I can't have you here as he takes it. We don't need you giving the de... boy any subtle help."

"That's fair." Kakashi said with a nod then left.

Inaba gave Naruto a test and the boy took a seat. Ten minutes later he turned it in.

Inaba looked it over and with a red pen wrote a big F on it. "You failed. I think you've actually gotten stupider boy."

"What? That's impossible."

"Shut up demon. You failed. Now get lost." Inaba rudely said.

Naruto frowned. "So it's true, Naruto really was sabotaged in class." Suddenly Naruto was covered in smoke and replaced by Sakura, who still looked unhappy.

"What? What is the meaning of this?" Inaba asked, caught by surprise.

"This was a test, but it was a test for you Inaba-sensei, not for me. I heard that people like you, who had been nice to me, were setting Naruto up for failure. Now I have proof you were doing that." Sakura said, grabbing her test. "I wonder how Hokage-sama is going to take this."

Inaba looked nervous. "No need for that. I knew it was you the whole time. That's why I failed you, because you were basically cheating for someone."

Sakura did not look the least bit convinced. "You really think I'm going to fall for that? You've never called me demon before, and I've never heard you call anyone else that either. You thought I was Naruto, admit it, and that's why you failed me. I'm willing to bet my entire paycheck you didn't even read the answers before you gave me an F."

Inaba now looked mad himself. "If you knew what that boy really was you'd be on my side without remorse. Besides, no one's going to believe you. It's just your word against mine. And I'm an experienced ninja who's earned his keep while you're just a child nobody takes seriously because of your fangirlism. Go ahead and tell Hokage-sama, he'll never believe you over me even with a piece of paper."

"I would if I saw this happen myself." Sarutobi said, coming from behind the door followed by Kakashi.

"Ho-Hokage-sama?" Inaba had a definitive deer-in-the-headlights look on him now.

"I was told about this little experiment and asked to see the results myself. I gotta say I wished I had thought of this sooner. Right now Inaba-san you are fired and will serve time. I will reduce the sentence if you agree to tell me every other teacher here that has done the same thing you've done to Naruto."

Inaba now looked mad. "You're punishing me for being tricked?"

"It was never about you not being able to see thru a trick. This was about how you regard Naruto Uzumaki." Kakashi stated.

"You've failed as a teacher and as a shinobi of Konoha. I sentence you to prison for a year. Whether or not you reveal other teachers similar activities will determine if you can be eligible for parole." Sarutobi ordered.

Inaba only looked madder. "This is a bunch of crap! That thing is Kyuubi! You should be killing it, not worrying about-" Before he could say more Sakura punched him in the stomach then kicked him in the crotch.

"That thing as you call him is my teammate." Sakura hissed.

"You don't understand. That boy is just Kyuubi in disguise. He's going to kill us all first chance he gets." Inaba insisted.

"Then why hasn't he already? It's been thirteen years. You seriously are going to tell me the right opportunity hasn't appeared yet in all that time?" Sakura countered, ready to hit the man even more.

"That's enough you two." Sarutobi injerjected. "Inaba-san, for violating my law regarding mentioning the Kyuubi around others and for neglecting your role as instruction, I sentence you to execution. I'll make it life in prison without possibility of parole if you tell me who else here is involved."

"But before you said-"

"That was before you took it too far. Circumstances changed." Sarutobi replied. "Kakashi, take him away to a holding cell."

The cycloptic jounin restrained the chuunin and hauled him off.

Sarutobi looked at Sakura. "Genin Sakura, I do not want you getting in the habit of attacking superior officers like that."

The pinkette bowed her head. "I'm sorry Hokage-sama, it won't happen again."

"Actually if a situation like this comes up again I'd hope you would. I just said don't make it a habit. Also, because of the nature of your act right then, this time I'm going to let you go without punishment. But you might not be so lucky next time."

"Yes Hokage-sama." Sakura replied.

"Good." Sarutobi said before disappearing in smoke, showing that this had been a shadow clone. The real Sarutobi was helping in the search for Danzou, and spared a clone at Kakashi's request.

* * *

Sakura was on her way to Naruto's place when she saw another familiar face. Two in fact. 'I know I said I'd help Haku, but I haven't seen them in weeks so it won't hurt to spare a few more moments to catch up.'

With that she approached the two. "Hey guys. Long time."

"Hi Forehead."

"H-Hi Sakura-san."

"So what are you two doing? I didn't know you two hung out together Ino, Hinata."

"We do on occasion. Sometimes it's nice to have something to talk about besides Sasuke-kun." Ino answered. "Even the greatest topic gets old when it's the only one brought up in conversation."

"How's Naruto-kun?" Hinata shyly asked.

"He's doing good. On our mission he kind of got some good news and bad news, but I think for the most part he's actually happy for once."

Hinata smiled but Ino looked confused. "Isn't he always happy?"

Sakura shook her head. "Hardly. I'm not going to say too much since it's his business more than mine, but let's just say unlike us happiness isn't a given for him each day. He has to find it."

Hinata sadly nodded. "Yeah, it's not easy living the way he does."

"What, you think just because he's poor his life's hard?" Ino asked. "I never figured you were the type of girl to-"

"Ino, I didn't say his happiness had anything to do with money." Hinata cut off the platinum blonde. "What I meant was it's not easy living with so little positive interaction with other people."

"And it's probably hard for you to give him more than you already do, isn't it Hinata?" Sakura asked, seeing the timid girl blush but nod. "I bet your clan even threatened you if you interacted with him more than necessary, didn't they?"

Hinata now looked surprised. "How did you know?"

"Lucky guess. Naruto told me he once helped a girl with dark hair who was having bully problems, and the next thing he knew the girl's family beat the crap out of him and told him next time they'd kill him and damn whatever the Hokage says about it. I figured that girl had to be you."

Hinata didn't know how to react, so Ino chose to cut in. "Wait, you're saying Hinata's family threatened to kill Naruto just because he helped her?"

"Unless I'm wrong about who he helped, then yes. Am I wrong Hinata?"

"I don't know. He did help me when we were young, but my clan..." She trailed off. "I only know what they said to me, not to him."

"Why would they be so against him?" Ino asked.

"That's something only Naruto has the right to tell, and please Ino, don't go making him tell you. Just this once, please let this remain his secret." Sakura asked, knowing all too well about Ino's gossip nature.

"Why?" Ino asked.

"Because everyone's entitled to their privacy. I know you love finding out people's secrets simply because they are secrets, but if people wanted that kind of information spread they wouldn't keep it to themselves. I only heard Naruto's biggest secret because he wasn't aware I was in the area, and it took a lot of convincing before he believed me when I said I wouldn't tell anyone. I'm not going to have you poke and prod his life just because you want more to gossip about."

Ino looked offended and put her hands on her hips. "This may come as a shock to you Forehead, but I do understand the concept of sealed lips. I know full well not to share every bit of information I hear and not to stick my nose in where it doesn't belong. There are things I know you can't begin to imagine. What I gossip about is only the harmless stuff. So don't accuse me of being so shameless."

Sakura was rather glad to hear that. "Good."

"So how did your mission go? Naruto didn't screw it up did he?" Ino asked, bothering Hinata a bit but she said nothing.

"Actually he's the one who helped out the most. It was Sasuke-kun who did something wrong." Sakura answered.

"Really?" Both listening girls asked, but for different reasons.

Sakura nodded. "In our big fight on the mission, Naruto was dealing with someone well-taught." For some reason she didn't want to implicate Haku, likely to avoid giving her a bad image before she was even interacted with. "He couldn't beat them, but he find a way to make them stop fighting. I was actually really impressed with how it worked."

Hinata smiled and Ino still looked curious, so Sakura continued. "This is where things got bad. Naruto was going to offer this enemy mercy, but Sasuke-kun disagreed. Sasuke-kun pushed Naruto aside saying if Naruto wasn't going to kill the enemy, he was. I tried to stop the fight but Sasuke-kun..." She paused to pull aside her sleeve to show the stitches on her shoulder. "He stabbed me with a kunai."

"He what?" Ino asked in disbelief.

"He was punished for that, right?" Hinata asked.

Sakura nodded. "I think having a busted jaw for a week counts. Plus Hokage-sama just suspended him for six months, but that was also for disrespecting Hokage-sama."

"What did he do?" Ino curiously asked.

"In a nutshell he called Hokage-sama powerless and nothing he decides matters if the civilian council says otherwise. Hokage-sama showed him how wrong he was." Sakura answered.

"Why would he believe such a thing?" Hinata asked. "The civilian council just mentions the concerns of the civilians and the non-ninja features of the village. They don't have any actual authority over the people in Konoha. Especially the Hokage."

Sakura nodded. "Apparently they taught Sasuke-kun otherwise. I think without his clan around to teach him the truth Sasuke-kun saw no reason to doubt them. I know my mom tried telling me civilians were more important than ninja, but I never thought they had authority over ninja."

"They can't." Hinata agreed. "Ninja work on matters civilians have no business being included in. Besides, even the client of a mission doesn't have actual authority over the hired ninja."

Sakura nodded. "Sasuke-kun realizes his mistake now, but he's still going to be suspended for a while. For the time being it's just me, Naruto, and a new girl Hokage-sama assigned to us."

"A new girl?" Hinata asked.

Sakura nodded. "Yeah, and I think you should talk with her Hinata. Otherwise she might try to get Naruto for herself. I think she's entertaining the idea but only holding back because I told her about you."

Hinata mildly frowned. "Maybe I will."


End file.
